A QTL genome scan of the metabolic syndrome and its component traits.

Background: Because high blood pressure, altered lipid levels, obesity, and diabetes so frequently occur together, they are sometimes collectively referred to as the metabolic syndrome. While there have been many studies of each metabolic syndrome trait separately, few studies have attempted to analyze them combined, i.e.

Alzheimer's disease: one disorder, too many genes?

The research of Alzheimer's disease (AD) genetics has been extremely prolific over the past decade, and currently more than 10 genes are reported to show either positive or negative evidence for disease association per month. Here, we review all 90 studies from 2003 reporting a total of 127 association findings between candidate genes and AD. While most positive results were largely contradictory, we identified three loci-on chromosomes 6p21, 10q24, 11q23-that yielded positive results in three or more independent studies, in addition to the well-established AD association with the gene encoding apolipoprotein E (APOE).

Genetic association of Alzheimer's disease with multiple polymorphisms in alpha-2-macroglobulin.

Alpha-2-Macroglobulin (A2M) is a highly plausible candidate gene for Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a region of chromosome 12 that has numerous independent reports of genetic linkage. We previously reported that a 5 bp deletion in A2M was associated with AD in a subset of the National Institute of Health (NIMH) Genetics Initiative AD family sample. Efforts to replicate this association finding in case - control samples have been largely negative, while those in family samples have been more positive.

Results of a high-resolution genome screen of 437 Alzheimer's disease families.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder of late life with complex inheritance. Mutations in three known genes lead to the rare early-onset autosomal dominant form of AD, while a common polymorphism (epsilon 4) in the gene encoding apolipoprotein E (APOE ) is a risk factor for more typical late-onset (>60 years) AD. A recent study concluded that there are up to four additional genes with an equal or greater contribution to the disease.