Because mutations in human SHP1 underlie obesity and diabetes, SHP1 is a candidate gene for human lipodystrophy syndromes. To identify possible disease mutations and/or common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), we developed primer pairs to amplify the promoter and coding region of SHP1. We used these pairs to sequence SHP1 in lipodystrophy patients who had no mutations in known lipodystrophy genes, and also in normal control subjects. We found no rare SHP1 coding sequence variants that were exclusive to patients with lipodystrophy. However, we found four polymorphisms, namely, an SNP [− 394] C> T in the promoter, a micro-deletion polymorphism [− 195] delCTGA in the promoter, a missense SNP 541G> C in exon 1 (which changed the amino acid sequence G171A), and an SNP 903C> T in exon 2. The findings suggest that SHP1 mutations are not commonly seen in patients with lipodystrophy who had no mutations in known disease genes. However, the identification of amplification primers and polymorphisms provides tools to further investigate SHP1 for association with other phenotypes.