Allelic frequencies at the ACE and LRPAP1 loci suggest age-related relationships in a Northern Italian population

Abstract

The present work attempts to determine the distribution of ACE and LRPAP1 genotypes and allele frequencies in a sample of the population of north-western Italy and to examine the age-related association of these polymorphisms. ACE D allele frequency found in this work further confirms data obtained in previous studies of Northern Italian populations. Regarding the LRPAP1 gene, high frequencies of the deleted allele in European populations were also confirmed. In order to analyse the relationship between ACE and LRPAP1 gene polymorphisms and age, the sample was subdivided into four age groups: 1–30 (n = 99), 31–50 (n = 165), 51–79 (n = 146) and 80–100 years old (n = 57). For the ACE gene, significant difference in D/D genotype frequency was found only between the younger and the 51–79 age groups (p < 0.05), the latter showing the lower frequency value. Significant differences were found, for both the I/D and D/D LRPAP1 genotypes, between the first and the second age group (p < 0.02) and between the first and the third age group (p < 0.01), with the 51–79 age group showing the higher D/D and the lower I/D genotype frequency values.