HLA system in Chinese children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

HLA in 12 unrelated Chinese paediatric patients with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) were found to have an increased frequency of BW22, B17 and AW33. BW22 was observed in 5/12 (41.7%) of IDDM patients compared to 40/330 normal unrelated Chinese controls (p less than 0.005, rr = 5.2). AW33 and B17 were observed in 6/12 (50.0%) and 7/12 (58.3%) of IDDM patients respectively, compared to 36/330 and 46/330 in the normal controls respectively (AW33: corrected p less than 0.0026, RR = 8.2, B17: corrected p less than 0.0026, rr = 8.6). HLA B8, B15 and B18 did not demonstrate any significant association with IDDM in this series of patients. The results of this study further emphasize the well recognized race specificity in HLA antigen distribution in normal population as well as disease states.