Type I keratin is involved in the formation and maintenance of various skin appendages, particularly in determining the shape and orientation of hair. It is required for the correct growth of hair follicles, especially for the maintenance of the anagen (growth) state.
Modulates the function of TNF-alpha in the specific context of the hair cycle.
Regulates protein synthesis and growth of epithelial cells by binding to the adaptor protein SFN and stimulating the Akt/mTOR pathway.
Participates in tissue repair.
The encoded protein may be a marker of basal cell differentiation in complex epithelia and therefore may indicate a specific type of epithelial "stem cell".
KRT17 acts as a promoter of epithelial proliferation by acting as a regulator of the immune response in the skin: promotes a Th1/Th17-dominated immune milieu.
May act as an autoantigen in the immunopathogenesis of psoriasis, with specific peptide regions being a major target for autoreactive T cells, causing their proliferation.
KRT17 and carcinomas: KRT17 has been shown to be overexpressed in many malignant tumors and plays an important role in tumorigenesis and development, including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and colorectal carcinoma (Wang Z et al. 2019).
Ujiie D et al (2020) demonstrated that in colorectal carcinoma, high expression of KRT17 transcripts is significantly associated with poor recurrence-free survival (RFS). An analogous finding can be established in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (Wang Z et al. 2019).