Insulin-dependent diabetes and HLA.

The study of a hundred and fifteen unrelated insulin-dependent diabetes and eight families with at least two insulin-dependent diabetes members made it possible to confirm the higher frequency of HLA-B8 and B18 (p less than 0.001) among patients, producing a RR of 2.24 and 2.47 respectively. The increased B15 frequency did not achieve statistical significance. B18 whose gametic association (delta = 0.0438) was significant only in diabetic patients was often related to Aw19-2 (Aw30 + Aw31). The B8/B18 genotype gave a relative risk (RR = 4.98) which was significantly higher than that of B8, B18 and B15 heterozygotes (1.50, 1.24 and 1.39 respectively). Pairs of diabetic siblings were more frequently HLA identical than would be expected by chance, and distribution of the pairs of affected sibs into the three categories, identical, semi-identical and different, was closer to the recessive model than to the dominant one. The fact that the B8/B18 individuals had a RR slightly higher than the B8 and B18 homozygotes and distinctly higher than the heterozygotes for only one of these genes, favours the hypothesis of two dominant genes, giving the appearance of recessivity. The gene associated with B18 in Southern Europe seems to play the same part as that of the gene associated with B15 in Northern Europe.