Keratin 18

KRT18
Identifiers
Aliases	KRT18, CK-18, CYK18, K18, keratin 18
External IDs	OMIM: 148070; MGI: 96692; HomoloGene: 55448; GeneCards: KRT18; OMA:KRT18 - orthologs
Gene location (Human)
Chr.	Chromosome 12 (human)
End	52,952,906 bp
Gene location (Mouse)
Chr.	Chromosome 15 (mouse)
End	101,940,462 bp
RNA expression pattern
	Top expressed in
	mucosa of sigmoid colon; ; mucosa of ileum; ; mucosa of transverse colon; ; rectum; ; olfactory zone of nasal mucosa; ; body of pancreas; ; parotid gland; ; placenta; ; islet of Langerhans; ; nasal epithelium;
	Top expressed in
	transitional epithelium of urinary bladder; ; epithelium of stomach; ; lacrimal gland; ; mucous cell of stomach; ; submandibular gland; ; lobe of prostate; ; seminal vesicula; ; crypt of lieberkuhn of small intestine; ; pyloric antrum; ; parotid gland;
	More reference expression data
	More reference expression data
Gene ontology
Molecular function	scaffold protein binding; structural molecule activity; protein binding; cadherin binding involved in cell-cell adhesion; RNA binding;
Cellular component	cytoplasm; centriolar satellite; keratin filament; microtubule organizing center; nucleolus; perinuclear region of cytoplasm; extracellular exosome; intermediate filament; cell periphery; nucleus; cytosol;
Biological process	Golgi to plasma membrane CFTR protein transport; extrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway; anatomical structure morphogenesis; negative regulation of apoptotic process; tumor necrosis factor-mediated signaling pathway; intermediate filament cytoskeleton organization; cell cycle; viral process; hepatocyte apoptotic process; cell-cell adhesion; keratinization; cornification;
	Sources:Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs
	3875
	16668
	ENSG00000111057
	ENSMUSG00000023043
	P05783
	P05784
	NM_199187; NM_000224
	NM_010664
	NP_000215; NP_954657
	NP_034794
	Wikidata
View/Edit Human	View/Edit Mouse

Keratin 18 is a type I cytokeratin. It is, together with its filament partner keratin 8, perhaps the most commonly found products of the intermediate filament gene family. They are expressed in single layer epithelial tissues of the body. Mutations in this gene have been linked to cryptogenic cirrhosis. Two transcript variants encoding the same protein have been found for this gene.

Keratin 18 is often used together with keratin 8 and keratin 19 to differentiate cells of epithelial origin from hematopoietic cells in tests that enumerate circulating tumor cells in blood.