Kallikrein-5, formerly known as stratum corneum tryptic enzyme (SCTE), is a
serine protease expressed in the
epidermis
The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens and regulates the amount of water rele ...
. In humans it is encoded by the ''KLK5''
gene.
[
] This gene is one of the fifteen
kallikrein subfamily members located in a cluster on chromosome 19. Its expression is up-regulated by
estrogens and
progestins
A progestogen, also referred to as a progestagen, gestagen, or gestogen, is a type of medication which produces effects similar to those of the natural female sex hormone progesterone in the body. A progestin is a '' synthetic'' progestogen. Pro ...
. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants encoding the same protein.
KLK5 has been suggested to regulate cell shedding (
desquamation) in conjunction with
KLK7 and
KLK14, given its ability to degrade proteins which form the extracellular component of cell junctions in the
stratum corneum
The stratum corneum (Latin for 'horny layer') is the outermost layer of the epidermis. The human stratum corneum comprises several levels of flattened corneocytes that are divided into two layers: the ''stratum disjunctum'' and ''stratum compact ...
. It is proposed that KLK5 regulates this process since it is able to self-activate in addition to activating KLK7 and KLK14.
[
]
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
* The
MEROPS online database for peptidases and their inhibitors
S01.017
{{gene-19-stub