Most expressed HLA loci exhibit a remarkable degree of allelic polymorphism, which derives from sequence differences predominantly localized to discrete hypervariable regions of the amino-terminal domain of the molecule. In this study, the HLA-DRB1 genotypes were determined in eighteen control cell lines and 112 unrelated Koreans using the PCR-SSP (Polymerase Chain Reaction-Sequence Specific Primer) technique. 29 specific primer pairs in assigning the DRB1 gene were used. The results of control cells correlated well with the data which was previously reported. The heterozygosity and homozygosity of the DRB1 gene were 0.786 and 0.214, respectively. In a total of 41 different DRB1 alleles and 83 genotypes, the most frequent allele and genotype were DRB1*04 and DRB1*0901/1501, respectively. This study shows that the PCR-SSP technique is relatively simple, fast and a practical tool for the determination of the HLA-DRBI genotypes. Moreover, these results-allele and genotype frequency and heterozygosity of the HLA DRB1 gene-could be useful for database study before being applied to individual identification and transplantation immunity.