KRT37
Identifiers
Aliases	KRT37, HA7, K37, KRTHA7, keratin 37
External IDs	OMIM: 604541; HomoloGene: 122145; GeneCards: KRT37; OMA:KRT37 - orthologs
Gene location (Human) Chr. Chromosome 17 (human)[1] Band 17q21.2 Start 41,420,547 bp[1] End 41,424,585 bp[1]
RNA expression pattern Bgee Human Mouse (ortholog) Top expressed in gonad skin of abdomen skin of leg canal of the cervix ectocervix smooth muscle tissue vagina wall of uterus endometrium right lung n/a More reference expression data BioGPS n/a
Gene ontology Molecular function structural molecule activity Cellular component intermediate filament extracellular exosome cytosol Biological process keratinization cornification Sources:Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs Species Human Mouse Entrez 8688 n/a Ensembl ENSG00000263022 ENSG00000108417 n/a UniProt O76014 n/a RefSeq (mRNA) NM_003770 n/a RefSeq (protein) NP_003761 n/a Location (UCSC) Chr 17: 41.42 – 41.42 Mb n/a PubMed search [2] n/a
Wikidata
View/Edit Human

Keratin 37 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the KRT37 gene. KRT37 is a member of the keratin gene family.

Clinical significance

KRT37 is the only keratin that is regulated by androgens.^[3] This sensitivity to androgens was acquired by Homo sapiens and is not shared with their great ape cousins. Although Winter et al. found that KRT37 is expressed in all the hair follices of chimpanzees, it was not detected in the head hair of modern humans. As androgens are known to grow hair on the body but decrease it on the scalp, this lack of scalp KRT37 may help explain the paradoxical nature of androgenic alopecia as well as the fact that head hair anagen cycles are extremely long. Moreover, variations in the gene may account for ethnic differences in body and facial hair.