Merosin is a novel tissue-specific basement membrane-associated protein found in basement membranes of trophoblast, striated muscle and Schwann cells. In placental extracts, the immuno-reactivity for merosin was detected in a protein band of 80 kilodaltons, and a 65 kilodalton polypeptide fragment of merosin could be isolated from proteolytic digests of placenta. In the present study, we describe the expression of merosin in human choriocarcinomas and normal placentas using immunoperoxidase staining of paraffin-embedded tissues. All five choriocarcinomas studied show immunoreactivity for merosin. Tumor cells, exhibiting the morphology typical of the intermediate trophoblast, stained distinctly for merosin. The cytotrophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast cells in these tumors showed negligible or no staining. In second and third trimester human placentas, merosin immunoreactivity was found in large extravillar mononuclear trophoblast cells of the basal plate as well as in the trophoblast basement membranes of the chorionic villi. The results indicate that merosin is mainly expressed in the intermediate trophoblast cells of both neoplastic and normal origin, whereas almost no expression is seen in cytotrophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast. Consequently, it is suggested that the intermediate trophoblast may represent a third, independently differentiated trophoblastic cell type.