Abstract. The aim of the present study was to determine the expression of a-disintegrin and metalloproteinase 10 (ADAM10) in human glioma tissues from surgical specimens and discuss its possible significance in glioma biology. A total of 43 glioma specimens obtained from patients between 2007 and 2010 were collected and a series of assays were performed. Of these, 22 cases were low-grade gliomas, while 21 cases were high-grade gliomas. In addition, 20 cases of meningioma were used as the control group. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry were used to determine the mRNA and protein expression levels of ADAM10. Besides the quantitative analysis, histological observations were also performed to localize ADAM10 expression in glioma cells. The RT-PCR and western blot analysis results demonstrated increased ADAM10 expression in the low-grade glioma samples compared with the control (P<0.05), while ADAM10 expression was further increased in the high-grade glioma samples (P<0.01 vs. control; P<0.05 vs. low-grade glioma), indicating that the mRNA and protein expression levels of ADAM10 were malignancy-dependent. The immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the ADAM10 protein was located on both the tumor cell membrane and blood vessel walls within tumor tissues. In conclusion, these results indicated that ADAM10 expression correlates with the grade of malignancy in human glioma from surgical specimens. In addition, the fact that ADAM10 protein was expressed on cell membranes and blood vessel walls within tumor tissues, indicates that its expression may be associated with invasive tumor growth and peritumoral edema formation.