HLA-A, B, C and DR antigen associations in insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in South African Negro (black) and Cape coloured people.

HLA-A, B, C and DR antigen frequencies were determined in South African Negro (Black) (50) and Cape Coloured (57) patients with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and in appropriate controls. The Black patients failed to show associations commonly reported for American Black patients with IDDM but did show a weakly significant increase in the DRw9 frequency. However, this antigen was rare even in the patient group and HLA associated genes do not appear to play a major role in the pathogenesis of IDDM in these people. The Cape Coloureds have a high proportion of Caucasoid genes. Coloured IDDM patients had the expected low DR2 and high DR4 frequencies. Unexpectedly the Cape Coloureds failed to show significant associations of IDDM with B8 or DR3.