Description
Product Characteristics: Cytokeratins are a subfamily of intermediate filament proteins and are characterized by a remarkable biochemical diversity, represented in epithelial tissues by at least 20 different polypeptides. They range in molecular weight between 40 kDa and 68 kDa and isoelectric pH between 4.9 - 7.8. The individual cytokeratin polypeptides are numbered 1 to 20. The various epithelia in the human body usually express cytokeratins which are not only characteristic of the type of epithelium, but also related to the degree of maturation or differentiation within an epithelium. Cytokeratin subtype expression patterns are used to an increasing extent in the distinction of different types of epithelial malignancies. The cytokeratin antibodies are not only of assistance in the differential diagnosis of tumors using immunohistochemistry on tissue sections, but are also a useful tool in cytopathology and flow cytometric assays.
Target Information: This gene is a member of the type II keratin family clustered on the long arm of chromosome 12. Type I and type II keratins heteropolymerize to form intermediate-sized filaments in the cytoplasm of epithelial cells. The product of this gene typically dimerizes with keratin 18 to form an intermediate filament in simple single-layered epithelial cells. This protein plays a role in maintaining cellular structural integrity and also functions in signal transduction and cellular differentiation. Mutations in this gene cause cryptogenic cirrhosis. Alternatively spliced transcript variants have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Jan 2012]