Objective   To understand the association between gene polymorphism of apolipoprotein E(Apo E)and attempted suicide.

  Methods   220 paired suicide attempted and controls were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism(PCR-RFLP).

  Results   There were four gene types of Apo E in each suicide attempters and controls group which were Apo E-E2/3, E3/3, E2/4 and E3/4 and in which Apo E-E3/3 was the main type. Multinomial model was used to analyze the factors which were related with attempted suicide with different Apo E gene type(attempters with Apo E-E3/4 being reference group), the results showed that affective conflict and dissatisfaction with life now were associated with attempters with Apo EE3/3, affective conflict were also associated with attempters with Apo E-E2/3, and no factors were associated with attempters with Apo E-E3/3. There were no association between different gene types of Apo E and attempted suicide by conditional logistic regression analysis.

  Conclusion   This study didn't support the association between Apo E gene and attempted suicide. There were different factors related with suicide attempters with different gene type of Apo E.