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Background: Beta 3 adrenergic receptor is expressed mainly in adipose tissue and might have an important role in the regulation of thermogenesis and lipolysis. The variation in the b 3 adrenergic receptor gene (Trp64Arg) has been reported to be related with an earlier onset in non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM) and increased capacity of gain weight in obesity. In Korea it has been reported that the prevalence of obesity in patients with NlDDM is lower than that in Westem countries. These results led us to study about the relevance of the variantion of b 3 adrenergic receptor gene to NIDDM in Korea. Methods: Forty patients with NIDDM and 47 normal control subjects were studied. We used the polymerase chain reaction to amplified the region of the gene for the b 3 adrenergic receptor including the variation site (Trp64Arg) in the genomic .DNA from the peripheral leukocytes and the Bst NI restriction fragment length polymorphism to detect the variation. Results: We could detect the variation of 64 codon in b 3 adrenergic receptor gene in both the patients with NIDDM and normal control subjects. The allele frequency and genotype fequency of Trp64Arg in b 3 adrenergic receptor gene were not differ between the patient with NIDDM and normal control subjects. There was no difference of the clinical manifestations in patients with NIDDM according to genotype. Conclusion: These data suggested that the variation(Trp64Arg) of b 3 adrenergic receptor gene may be not associated with NIDDM in Korea.