The human gene encoding the transcription factor C/EBP alpha was isolated from an umbilical cord genomic library screened by low stringency hybridization. Two overlapping clones were characterized by restriction enzyme analysis and included 13.2 kb of the C/EBP alpha locus. The entire gene and 471 bp of the promoter were sequenced. The human C/EBP alpha gene is 2783 bp long and encodes a 356 amino acid long protein, which is the same in length as for rat C/EBP alpha. Compared to rat C/EBP alpha, there are two insertions of two amino acids and one deletion of four. The amino acid similarity between the two proteins is over 92%. The human C/EBP alpha gene was found to be expressed at the highest levels in placenta. High expression was also found in liver, lung, skeletal muscle, pancreas, small intestine, colon and in peripheral blood leukocytes. However, the expression was undetectable or very low in brain, kidney, thymus, testis and ovary. These results show that the human C/EBP alpha gene is expressed in a tissue restricted manner.