Gene Polymorphism of Fatty Acids Metabolism Enzymes in Elderly Patients with Depression and Mild Cognitive Impairment

In elderly society, depression, cognitive impairment in elderly increase healthcare costs and social burden of care. Current clinical treatment for depression or cognitive impairment only provides mild symptomatic control. Providing a healthy dietary guideline through the regulate diet is believe to be a useful method to control or improve depressive mood and cognitive function. Thus, the aims of this study are to clarifying the specific PUFA contents, inflammatory cytokines and gene polymorphism of fatty acid metabolism enzymes PLA2, COX-2 and Apo E in elderly with or without depression and mild cognitive impairment. And the effects of n-3 PUFA on the cognitive function and related gene expression will be estimated. In this study, we will spend 2 years to conduct a matched case-control study which enrolls 100 over 60-year-old elderly subjects, whom with depression or with mild cognitive impairment, respectively. We also will recruit 100 healthy sujbects as a control group. The blood (RBC, WBC and plasma) PUFA content and cytokines (IL-2, IL-6 and TNF-α) will be analyzed, and genotyping of PLA2, COX-2 and Apo E will be performed by PCR-RFL. Dietary record of recruited subjects will be performed, especially in PUFA. Results of the present study will demonstrate the association among the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio, inflammatory cytokines and gene polymorphism of fatty acid metabolism enzymes with depression and mild cognitive impairment elderly subjects.