Serological HLA typing of 92 insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) patients and 300 healthy controls was performed by the immunomagnetic typing technique. We found an increased risk of IDDM among DR4/w8 heterozygotes, similar to that seen for DR3/4 heterozygotes. The DQ alleles of these DR4/w8 patients were therefore established. When hybridized with a cDNA DQB probe, BamHI-digested DNA from eight out of the nine DR4/w8 patients revealed only one single 10.8-kb DQB1-specific fragment typical of DQw4 and DQw8. DNA from all DR4/w8 patients also hybridized to an oligonucleotide probe corresponding to amino acids (aa) 23-30 of the beta chain of DQw8. However, using the oligonucleotide probe, the staining intensity was found to be only half of that seen when DNA from DQw8 homozygotes was used instead, suggesting that the eight DR4/w8 patients had DQw8 in a single dose and carried the DQw4 allele at the DRw8 haplotype. Therefore, eight of nine DR4/w8 IDDM patients seemed to be DR4,DQw8/DRw8,DQw4, which, thus, may be associated with susceptibility to develop IDDM. One common explanation of IDDM susceptibility for DR4,DQw8/DRw8,DQw4 and DR3,DQw2/DR4,DQw8 heterozygotes may be that they share similar DQ alpha beta epitopes encoded by DQA and DQB genes in trans.