LB-Q1 and LB-Q4 are two subtypes of DRw52, defined by proliferative T-cell clones. These subtypes represent a polymorphism of the DR beta III gene. Similar subtypes of DRw52 can be defined by oligonucleotide typing, serology and RFLP analysis. In the present study we compared these typing techniques on a panel of 22 HLA-D homozygous, DRw52-positive typing cells. All typing techniques correlated very well. Three subtypes of DRw52 could be identified. Our results show that typing for cellularly defined structures can be done with a variety of noncellular techniques. This observation has important implications for matching in unrelated bone marrow transplantation and for disease association studies.