SummaryLow CD8 + T lymphocyte numbers have long been described in hereditary haemochromatosis (HH). Recently, two conserved haplotypes localized near the microsatellite D6S105 at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I region were described predicting the clinical expression of HH and the CD8 + T lymphocyte numbers. The A-A-T haplotype was associated with a severe clinical expression of HH and low CD8 + T lymphocyte numbers, while the G-G-G haplotype was associated with a milder clinical expression of HH and high CD8 + T lymphocyte numbers. As CD8 + T lymphocytes are a very heterogeneous population, in this study we analysed the CD8 + subpopulations of naive, central memory (TCM) and effector memory (TEM), and further subsets of CD8 + TEM cells in 47 HH patients and 68 controls. In addition, association studies were conducted between the conserved haplotypes and the CD8 + T cell subpopulations in HH. Variations of the numbers of naive and central memory cells with age were similar between HH patients and controls. For TEM cells and the TEM CD27 -CD28 -subset no effect of age was observed in HH [R 2 = 0·001, not significant (n.s.) and R 2 = 0·01, n.s., respectively] contrasting with the increasing of these subpopulations with age in controls (R 2 = 0·09, P = 0·017 and R 2 = 0·22, P = 0·0005, respectively). Interestingly, patients homozygous for the A-A-T haplotype have lower numbers of CD8 + TEM cells due especially to lower numbers of TEM CD27 -CD28 -(0·206 Ϯ 0·119 and 0·066 Ϯ 0·067 ¥ 10 6 cells/ml, respectively) than patients carrying the G-G-G haplotype (0·358 Ϯ 0·195 and 0·246 Ϯ 0·202 ¥ 10 6 cells/ml, respectively). This may suggest an inability of HH patients to differentiate the CD8 + T cells into the most mature phenotype.