H19 is an imprinted gene that demonstrates maternal monoallelic expression in fetal tissues and in some cancers, and very likely does not code for a protein. H19 is involved in the regulation of cell proliferation, embryonic growth, and differentiation through upstream and downstream cis elements that influence the expression of IGF2, a closely physically linked gene, and also through its RNA involved in metastasis and angiogenic processes. We report the identification of an alternatively spliced variant of H 19 RNA that lacks part of exon 1. This variant was detected in human embryonic and placental tissues, but not in bladder or hepatocellular carcinomas. A very low level of this variant was also detected in colon carcinoma. The observed pattern of expression suggests that this splice variant is a developmentally regulated H19 gene transcript. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.