Insulin-dependent diabetes--associated HLA-D region encoded determinants.

We have studied the relative frequency of Dw specificities (defined with homozygous typing cells or primed LD (lymphocyte defined) typing reagents) associated with DR4 and DR2 in the normal and insulin-dependent diabetic population. Our findings demonstrate that there is a highly significantly increased frequency of Dw4 in DR4 positive diabetics as compared with normals and a significantly decreased frequency of Dw2 and Dw12 in the few DR2 positive insulin-dependent diabetics that we have found. In addition, we have used PLT reagents to define a new LD specificity, LD-MN2, that is associated with DR2 and is found significantly more frequently in DR2+ IDD patients than in DR2+ normals. These results suggest that determinants of import in the association between HLA-D and IDD may be more closely related to Dw than to DR.