Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder with complex etiology involving both genetic and environmental factors. Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) rs405509 ( - 219 T/G), a promoter SNP, controls the expression of APOE gene, and plays a modifier effect of APOE ezt on the susceptibility of Alzheimer's disease. In this study, we investigate the association between APOE rs405509 polymorphism and the susceptibility of PD in a Chinese population. A total of 1020 subjects were collected including 510 sporadic PD patients (mean age: 63.11 +/- 9.28 years) and 510 healthy control subjects (mean age: 62.97 +/- 9.09 years). APOE rs405509 polymorphism was genotyped using a TaqMan genotyping method. The Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) was calculated for the control group by Chi-square (chi 2) test. The strength of this association between the APOE rs405509 polymorphism and PD risk was evaluated with crude odds ratios (ORs) and 95 Wo confidence intervals (CIs) using a logistic regression analysis. The T allele frequency was 0.84 and 0.70 in the PD and control groups, respectively. T allele carriers of rs405509 were associated with an increased overall risk of PD and in male subjects in the allele, recessive, and additive genetic models. Similar results in female subjects were found in the allele and recessive genetic models. In conclusion, our study suggests that the APOE rs405509 T allele is correlated with increased susceptibility of PD in a Chinese population.