ObjectiveTo investigate the association of HLA-Cw alleles with inflammatory bowel disease(IBD), so as to identify IBD susceptibility gene.MethodsThe HLA-Cw genotype were analyzed in 100 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), 73 patients with Crohn's disease (CD) and 106 randomly ethnically matched healthy controls by sequence specific primer polymerase chain (PCR-SSP).Results HLA-Cw * 07 gene phenotype frequencies increased in patients with UC (0.430) compared with that in healthy controls (0.226), P = 0.002; while HLA-Cw * 12 gene phenotype frequencies increased in patients with CD (0.356) compared with that in healthy controls (0.123), P = 0.000.ConclusionHLA-Cw * 07 allele and HLA-Cw * 12 allele may be strongly associated with the susceptibility of UC and CD, respectively.