Departamento de Morfologia, Universidade Federal do Ceará.
Braz J Med Biol Res. 2010 Mar;43(3):249-56. doi: 10.1590/s0100-879x2010007500003.
A series of studies have shown that the heavy burdens of diarrheal diseases in the first 2 formative years of life in children living in urban shanty towns have negative effects on physical and cognitive development lasting into later childhood. We have shown that APOE4 is relatively common in shanty town children living in Brazil (13.4%) and suggest that APOE4 has a protective role in cognitive development as well as weight-for-height in children with heavy burdens of diarrhea in early childhood (64/123; 52%), despite being a marker for cognitive decline with Alzheimer's and cardiovascular diseases later in life. APOE2 frequency was higher among children with heaviest diarrhea burdens during the first 2 years of life, as detected by PCR using the restriction fragment length polymorphism method, raising the possibility that ApoE-cholesterol balance might be critical for growth and cognitive development under the stress of heavy diarrhea burdens and when an enriched fat diet is insufficient. These findings provide a potential explanation for the survival advantage in evolution of genes, which might raise cholesterol levels during heavy stress of diarrhea burdens and malnutrition early in life.
一系列研究表明，城市棚户区儿童生命最初 2 年中腹泻病的沉重负担对身体和认知发育有负面影响，这种影响会持续到儿童后期。我们已经表明，载脂蛋白 E4（APOE4）在巴西棚户区儿童中较为常见（13.4%），并且表明 APOE4 对认知发育以及体重身高比有保护作用，尽管它是与晚年阿尔茨海默病和心血管疾病相关的认知能力下降的标志物。在生命最初 2 年中腹泻负担最重的儿童中，APOE2 频率更高，这是通过使用聚合酶链反应（PCR）和限制片段长度多态性方法检测到的，这提出了这样一种可能性，即在遭受严重腹泻负担和脂肪丰富的饮食不足的压力下，载脂蛋白 E-胆固醇平衡对于生长和认知发育可能至关重要。这些发现为基因在进化中的生存优势提供了一个潜在的解释，即在生命早期腹泻负担和营养不良的严重压力下，基因可能会提高胆固醇水平。
