In order to investigate the genetic background of Menière's disease, histocompatibility (HLA) antigens in Japanese patients were studied. HLA-class I: HLA-A, -B and -C were typed by the classical microcytotoxicity technique, and HLA-class II: HLA-DR, DQ, and DP were typed by PCR-DNA typing methods. Twenty patient samples tested were selected very strictly following clinical data and classical criteria. Most of the patients had been suffering from typical symptoms during a considerably long period of time (16 +/- 7 years). Normal controls were based on the gene frequency in the Japanese population. Compared with the normal controls, a higher frequency of the DRB1*1602 subtype of HLA-DR2 was found in the patient group (chi 2 = 9,21, p < 0.04). P-values were corrected by multiplying by the total number of antigens. Additionally, HLA-Cw4 was increased, although the p-value was not significant after multiple antigen correction. There was no obvious relationship between the HLA-DRB1*1602 patients and the clinical data that included severity, age at time of onset, etc.