In 205 patients with dementia [89 with Alzheimer's disease (AD), 47 with vascular dementia (VaD), 69 with mixed dementia (MD)], 113 persons with mild cognitive impairment and in 107 controls serum adiponectin, leptin and resistin levels, pro-inflammatory [interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and chitotriosidase] and anti-inflammatory (25-OH vitamin D, HDL-cholesterol and paraoxonase 1) markers, as well as glucose metabolism parameters (glucose, insulin and HOMA-IR) were determined.
We identified APOE ɛ2/ɛ3/ɛ4 and additional four genetic polymorphisms including MTHFR C677T, PON1L55M, TGF-β1 +29C/T, and TNF-α -850C/T associated with VaD.
On the other hand, low serum level of high-density lipoprotein and low level of serum PON activity were found associated significantly (P ≤ .001 in both cases) only in patients with VaD as compared to healthy control.
We have previously shown that serum PON1 activity (PON1a) is lower in vascular dementia (VaD) than in Alzheimer's disease (AD), suggesting that PON1a may distinguish VaD from AD.