Carbonic anhydrase 7, also known as carbonate dehydratase VII, carbonic anhydrase VII, CA-VII and CA7, is a cytoplasm protein which belongs to the alpha-carbonic anhydrase family. Carbonic anhydrases are a large family of zinc metalloenzymes that catalyze the reversible hydration of carbon dioxide. They participate in a variety of biological processes, including respiration, calcification, acid-base balance, bone resorption, and the formation of aqueous humor, cerebrospinal fluid, saliva, and gastric acid. Carbonic anhydrases show extensive diversity in tissue distribution and in their subcellular localization. CA7 / CA-VII is predominantly expressed in the salivary glands. Alternative splicing in the coding region results in multiple transcript variants encoding different isoforms.
