The role of keratins in the digestive system: lessons from transgenic mouse models

Keratins are the largest subfamily of intermediate filament proteins. They are either type I acidic or type II basic keratins. Keratins form obligate heteropolymer in epithelial cells and their expression patterns are tissue-specific. Studies have shown that keratin mutations are the cause of many diseases in humans or predispose humans to acquiring them. Using mouse models to study keratin-associated human diseases is critical, because they allow researchers to get a better understanding of these diseases and their progressions, and so many such studies have been conducted. Acknowledging the importance, researches with genetically modified mice expressing human disease-associated keratin mutants have been widely done. Numerous studies using keratin knockout mice, keratin-overexpressed mice, or transgenic mice expressing keratin mutants have been conducted. This review summarizes the mouse models that have been used to study type I and type II keratin expression in the digestive organs, namely, the liver, pancreas, and colon.