Apolipoprotein E genotype in elderly nondemented subjects without senile changes in the brain.

Only a small minority of elderly subjects can survive with a brain free of senile changes (senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and amyloid angiopathy) beyond the age of 80 years. We demonstrated that an increase of epsilon 2 allele frequency and a decrease of epsilon 4 allele frequency of the apolipoprotein E gene are associated with such brain aging without senile changes.