Insulin-dependent neonatal diabetes mellitus (NDM) is a rare form of diabetes with a heterogeneous genetic background. The HLA-DRB1 and DQB1 genotypes were determined for 13 patients with NDM, from 9 unrelated families. Four patients had permanent NDM (PNDM) and 9 patients had transient NDM (TNDM). No excess of HLA susceptibility markers for type 1 diabetes (IDDM) was observed in this series of patients, whatever the forms of diabetes PNDM or TNDM. Paternal isodisomy of chromosome 6 was observed in two TNDM cases. These observations are consistent with the current hypothesis that there is a recessive susceptibility gene, at least in the transient form of the disease, unlinked to the MHC locus on chromosome 6. Although established in a short series, our results do not support an additive role of IDDM1 in the progression of the disease.