Lack of association between an estrogen receptor 1 gene polymorphism and Parkinson's disease with dementia

Objective - To test for an association between an estrogen receptor 1 (ESR1 ) gene polymorphism and Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) in Finnish subjects. Subjects and methods - Forty-one clinically demented and pathologically confirmed PDD patients and 59 cognitively intact aged individuals with normal neuropathology were genotyped for the ESR1 Pvu II polymorphism. Results - We found no significant differences in the genotype or allele frequencies when the PDD patients were compared with the controls. Nor were there any significant differences in these frequencies when the PDD patients with coexisting Alzheimer's disease pathology were compared with the control group. Conclusion - We failed to demonstrate an association between dementia-associated PD and the ESR1 Pvu II polymorphism in Finnish subjects.