A remarkable candidate gene for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is 24-dehydrocholesterol reductase (DHCR24) gene that encodes seladin-1 (selective AD indicator), an enzyme that is involved in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway, exerts neuroprotective and anti-apoptotic effects, and found to be down regulated in AD vulnerable brain regions. The genetic association between DHCR24 rs600491 polymorphism and the risk for AD was investigated in 295 Hungarian late-onset AD patients and 204 ethnically matched, elderly, cognitively healthy control individuals. The DHCR24 rs600491 genotype distributions did not differ significantly between the AD and control groups. Stratification according to gender, however, revealed a statistically significant association between T/T genotype and AD risk in men, in contrast with the results in women. Our findings indicate a gender dependent effect of DHCR24 rs600491 polymorphism on the susceptibility to AD.
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