APOE gene polymorphism in ischemic stroke patients from Huizhou and its correlation with blood lipids and homocysteine

Objectives: To investigate the correlation between apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene polymorphisms and ischemic stroke and its relationship with blood lipids and homocysteine (HCY) level in Huizhou City. Materials and methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, we selected 2612 patients who underwent APOE genotyping from November 2019 to November 2021 at the Third People's Hospital of Huizhou. Among them, 2014 were ischemic stroke patients and 598 were non-stroke patients. The independent variables were ischemic stroke, different genotypes, and different alleles, while the dependent variables were blood lipid levels and HCY levels. Results: The distribution frequency of c4 allele in stroke group was higher than that in non-stroke group (P < 0.05). Compared with c4 allele carriers in the stroke group, the levels of lipid total cholesterol (TC) and lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) in c2 and c3 allele carriers were significantly lower, while the levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were significantly higher (P < 0.01). The levels of lipid Lipoprotein a (LPa) and small dense low-density lipoprotein (sdLDL) in c2 allele carriers in stroke group were significantly lower than those of c4 allele carriers (P < 0.05). Logistics regression analysis showed that age, TC, HCY level and allele c4 were positively correlated with the risk of ischemic stroke (P < 0.01), TG level was positively correlated with the risk of ischemic stroke in females (P < 0.01). Conclusions: APOE gene polymorphism is associated with ischemic stroke, and c4 allele carriers have a higher risk than c3 allele carriers.