Cldn7 - claudin 7

This gene encodes a member of the claudin family. Claudins are integral membrane proteins and components of tight junction strands. Tight junction strands serve as a physical barrier to prevent solutes and water from passing freely through the paracellular space between epithelial or endothelial cell sheets, and also play critical roles in maintaining cell polarity and signal transductions. This gene is expressed constitutively in the mammary epithelium throughout development, and might be involved in vesicle trafficking to the basolateral membrane. It is essential for NaCl homeostasis in distal nephrons. The knockout mice lacking this gene showed severe salt wasting, chronic dehydration, and growth retardation, and died within 12 days after birth. Alternatively spliced transcript variants have been found for this gene. [provided by RefSeq, Aug 2010]