Apolipoprotein E Gene Polymorphism, Glycated Hemoglobin, and Peripheral Arterial Disease Risk in Chinese Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Background. The apolipoprotein E (ApoE) gene polymorphism has been found to influence plasma lipid concentration, and its correlation with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) has been investigated. However, it is unclear whether ApoE is associated with PAD in Chinese type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. Therefore, our study is aimed at investigating the relationship between the ApoE gene polymorphism and PAD in Chinese T2DM patients. Methods. A total of 192 T2DM patients were divided into two groups: T2DM and T2DM with PAD. The clinical and biochemical parameters were obtained. Polymerase chain reaction was used to identify the genotypes of ApoE. The multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify the possible risk factor for PAD. Results. There were no significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies of ApoE between the T2DM and T2DM with PAD groups. However, the T2DM with PAD group tended to have more epsilon 4/epsilon 3 genotypes (21.5% vs. 11.3%) than the T2DM group. The multivariate logistic regression showed that smoking, age, disease duration, TG, LDL, and HbA1c were risk factors for PAD. Conclusions. These results demonstrated that there was no evidence of a relationship between ApoE and PAD.