Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

KRT38

Keratin, type I cuticular Ha8

Also known as: KRT38_HUMAN, KRTHA8

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
O76015
Gene
KRT38
Ensembl
ENSG00000171360
Chromosome
17
Canonical length
456 aa
Protein class
Plasma proteins, Predicted intracellular proteins

OverviewNCBI Gene

The protein encoded by this gene is a member of the keratin gene family. As a type I hair keratin, it is an acidic protein which heterodimerizes with type II keratins to form hair and nails. The type I hair keratins are clustered in a region of chromosome 17q12-q21 and have the same direction of transcription. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2008]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

456 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>O76015|KRT38
     1  MTSSYSSSSC PLGCTMAPGA RNVSVSPIDI GCQPGAEANI APMCLLANVA HANRVRVGST
    61  PLGRPSLCLP PTCHTACPLP GTCHIPGNIG ICGAYGENTL NGHEKETMQF LNDRLANYLE
   121  KVRQLEQENA ELEATLLERS KCHESTVCPD YQSYFHTIEE LQQKILCSKA ENARLIVQID
   181  NAKLAADDFR IKLESERSLR QLVEADKCGT QKLLDDATLA KADLEAQQES LKEEQLSLKS
   241  NHEQEVKILR SQLGEKLRIE LDIEPTIDLN RVLGEMRAQY EAMLETNRQD VEQWFQAQSE
   301  GISLQDMSCS EELQCCQSEI LELRCTVNAL EVERQAQHTL KDCLQNSLCE AEDRFGTELA
   361  QMQSLISNVE EQLSEIRADL ERQNQEYQVL LDVKTRLENE IATYRNLLES EDCKLPCNPC
   421  STSPSCVTAP CAPRPSCGPC TTCGPTCGAS TTGSRF

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against KRT38 can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Intracellular
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.55
Highest tissue expression
16 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • skin: 16 nTPM
  • salivary gland: 0.9 nTPM
  • thymus: 0.5 nTPM
  • tonsil: 0.3 nTPM
  • adipose tissue: 0.2 nTPM
  • cervix: 0.1 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • neutrophil progenitors: 0.7 nCPM
  • late spermatids: 0.5 nCPM
  • urothelial cells: 0.3 nCPM
  • breast secretory cells: 0.1 nCPM
  • endometrial glandular cells: 0.1 nCPM
  • extravillous trophoblasts: 0.1 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 0 nTPM
  • classical monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • eosinophil: 0 nTPM
  • gdT-cell: 0 nTPM
  • intermediate monocyte: 0 nTPM
  • MAIT T-cell: 0 nTPM

Brain region

  • hypothalamus: 0.1 nTPM
  • amygdala: 0 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 0 nTPM
  • cerebellum: 0 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 0 nTPM
  • choroid plexus: 0 nTPM

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
1.23
gnomAD pLI
0
gnomAD missense Z
-0.65
DepMap mean gene effect
0.13
DepMap dependency class
selective

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 2% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

InteractionsUniProt · HPA

Protein binding partners of KRT38 in the human serome: UniProt-annotated complex subunits plus reported interactors. Each links to its own Seroatlas record.

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads KRT38 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against KRT38 could matter depends on whether native KRT38 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

KRT38 is annotated as predominantly intracellular. Intracellular proteins are common autoantibody markers, becoming visible to the immune system after cell injury or altered processing, but are usually markers of disease rather than direct drivers.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label KRT38 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/KRT38. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

© 2026 · Seroatlas, Discover Oregon LLC · Terms of use

Loading the interactive Seroatlas protein explorer...