Cases of early-onset Alzheimer disease (AD) with an autosomal dominant inheritance pattern (familial AD [FAD]) are rare but have greatly advanced our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of AD.
Molecular genetic analysis was performed in two autopsy-confirmed cases of early-onset Alzheimer's disease belonging to a large German pedigree [FAD2, according to the nomenclature of St. George-Hyslop, et al.(1987) Science 235:885-890].