To investigate the correlation between ApoE gene polymorphism and the risk of lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD) in T2DM patients of Han nationality in northern China. One hundred and fifty patients with T2DM and 150 patients with T2DM combined with LEAD were enrolled in the study and assigned to the control group and the case group, respectively. The results revealed that the number of epsilon 2 (ε2) genotype carriers in the case group was significantly lower than that in the control group (case vs control: 8.0% vs 15.4%), and the distribution of the ε2 allele frequency was similar to that of the genotype (case vs control: 4.0% vs 8.4%). A binary logistic regression analysis revealed that age, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and gender were risk factors for T2DM with LEAD and that the ApoE ε2 carriers was a protective factor (odds ratio [OR] 0.380; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.162-0.892; P = .026). In male subjects, ε2 carriers were more common in the control group (case vs control:7.8% vs 24.1%), while epsilon 4 (ε4) carriers were more common in the case group (case vs control: 23.3% vs 8.6%); the distribution of frequency of ε2 and ε4 alleles was more common in the control group and the case group, respectively (case vs control: 3.9% vs 12.1%, 12.8% vs 5.2%). In male, age and WHR were risk factors for the disease, and being an ε2 carrier was a protective factor. Being an ApoE gene ε2 carrier is a protective factor for LEAD in male patients with T2DM that are of Han nationality in northern China.
Keywords: apolipoprotein E (ApoE); gene polymorphism; lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD); type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).