HLA ASSOCIATIONS IN OBESE WHITE AND BLACK ADULTS.

We summarized HLA-A and -B data from 1095 black and white adult men and women with or without obesity to determine if specific HLA tissue types are overrepresented in obese individuals compared with nonobese. None of the three HLA types (Aw30, B18, Bw35) previously reported to relate to obesity was overrepresented in obese subjects in our study. However, B14 and B41 haplotypes were overrepresented in obese white men compared with nonobese men, and B7 was overrepresented in obese black men compared with nonobese men. Additional research will be required to confirm the HLA associations we found and to determine if methodologic differences could account for the differences among the previous studies.