A possible association of the human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-A2 allele with increased susceptibility to Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been the subject of debate for more than 20 years. We compared the presence of the HLA-A2 allele in a sample from the French population composed of 451 patients and 477 controls. There was no evidence of an association of this allele with increased risk of AD. Moreover, no effect was observed when we stratified the case-control sample on gender, age of onset or presence of an APOE epsilon4 allele. We conclude that HLA-A2 allele is not a major risk factor for sporadic AD.