Elsevier

Experimental Neurology

Volume 102, Issue 3, December 1988, Pages 271-279
Experimental Neurology

Genetic linkage studies in Alzheimer's disease families

https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4886(88)90220-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease is a devastating neurological disorder and the leading cause of dementia among the elderly. Recent studies have localized the gene for familial Alzheimer's disease to chromosome 21 in a series of early onset AD families (mean age of onset < 60). Familial late onset AD (mean age of onset > 60) is a more common clinical form of the disorder. Thirteen families with multiply affected Alzheimer's disease family members were identified and sampled. Ten of these families were of the late onset Alzheimer's disease type. Simulation studies were used to evaluate the usefulness of these pedigrees in linkage studies in familial Alzheimer's disease. Linkage studies undertaken to test the localization of both early onset and late onset Alzheimer's disease families to chromosome 21 failed to establish linkage and excluded linkage from a large portion of the region where the early onset Alzheimer's disease gene was localized. These findings suggest that more than one etiology may exist for familial Alzheimer's disease and indicate the need for continued screening of the genome in familial Alzheimer's disease families.

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    R. J. Bartlett is a recipient of an ADRDA/Allied Signal Faculty Scholar Award.

    1

    The authors thank Drs. J. F. Gusella and G. D. Stewart for providing the DNA probes D21S1/D21S11 and D21S16; Drs. Michael Boehnke and R. C. Elston for their helpful comments; Wendy Smith, Fiona Francis, James Koh, Edward Hanson, Kenneth M. Wilkinson, and Sharon Musick for expert assistance with the polymorphism and DNA analysis; Peggy Pate and Helen Harbett for technical assistance with the family data analysis; Laurita Melton and Penny Ligon for manuscript preparation. This work was supported by the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (AG05128), by NS19999 and NS23008 from the NINCDS, by a grant from the Denver Foundation for Health and Research, and by Clinical Research Unit M01-RR-30 from the NIGMS.

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