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Family Studies of Alzheimer's Dementia: Results and Prospects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Leonard L. Heston*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and College of Biological Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Marcia L. Morris
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and College of Biological Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
*
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
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Abstract:

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Studies of families located through a proband with dementia of the Alzheimer type have demonstrated transmission of the disorder within families, probably through shared genes. Increasing closeness of genetic relationship and increasing severity of illness are both associated with increasing risk to relatives. Families a.t high risk are especially valuable for studies of the biology of dementing illness including, in particular, their molecular genetics. Associations at several levels between Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's dementia provide important clues for molecular hypotheses.

Type
Cellular Clues to Pathogenesis
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1986

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