HLA and insulin gene associations with IDDM

The HLA DR genotype frequencies in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients and the frequencies of DR alleles transmitted from affected parent to affected child both indicate that the DR3-associated predisposition is more "recessive" and the DR4-associated predisposition more "dominant" in inheritance after allowing for the DR3/DR4 synergistic effect. B locus distributions on patient haplotypes indicate that only subsets of both DR3 and DR4 are predisposing. Heterogeneity is detected for both the DR3 and DR4 predisposing haplotypes based on DR genotypic class. With appropriate use of the family structure of the data a control population of "unaffected" alleles can be defined. Application of this method confirms the predisposing effect associated with the class 1 allele of the polymorphic region 5' to the insulin gene.