No association of VEGF polymorphims with Alzheimer's disease.

The vascular hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has brought the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) into focus. The genomic region including the VEGF gene has been linked to AD and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the VEGF have in previous studies been associated with AD risk. To further evaluate these findings, we genotyped two SNPs in the VEGF gene (rs699947 [-2578]) and rs1570360 [-1154]) by TaqMan Allelic Discrimination in a study sample including AD patients (n = 801) and controls (n = 286). In a subgroup of the population these SNPs were analyzed in relation to APOE epsilon4 genotype, to cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers (T-tau, P-tau, and beta(42)-Amyloid) as well as to neuropathological markers for AD (neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques). No significant associations with risk for AD or any of the studied biomarkers could be found in this study, thus not supporting VEGF as being a major risk gene for AD.