We report the isolation and initial characterization of a new member of the human nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) subunit family, α10 (CHRNA10), from both inner-ear neuroepithelium and lymphoid tissue. The cDNA is 1959 nucleotides in length, with a coding region predicting a protein of 451 amino acids that is 90% identical to rat α10. The α10 gene was localized to chromosome 11p15.5. Human α10 was detected in human inner-ear tissue, tonsil, immortalized B-cells, cultured T-cells and peripheral blood lymphocytes using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, Northern blot hybridization, and immunohistochemistry. We also detected the expression of the human nAChR α9 (CHRNA9) mRNA in these same tissues using RT-PCR and Northern blot hybridization.