Late Cornified Envelope Protein 5A (LCE5A)

The LCE cluster contains multiple conserved genes that encode stratum corneum proteins, and these genes are expressed relatively late during fetal assembly of the skin cornified envelope . By database analysis to identify human orthologs of mouse genes encoding late envelope proteins (LEPs), Marshall et al. (2001) identified LCE5A, which they called LEP18.Using real-time PCR, Jackson et al. (2005) detected very low LCE5A expression in adult and fetal skin and esophagus, but not in vulva or tongue. Expression was also detected in heart.

By genomic sequence analysis, Marshall et al. (2001) mapped the LCE5A gene to the LCE cluster on chromosome 1q21. Jackson et al. (2005) stated that the mouse Lce5a gene maps to a syntenic LCE gene cluster on chromosome 3F1.