The ADAMTS14 gene helps your body build and organize collagen, a key support material in skin, tendons, ligaments, and other connective tissues. This gene plays an important role in keeping these tissues strong while still allowing normal stretch and movement. If it does not work well, collagen may form less normally, which can affect tissue strength, joint support, and wound healing.
What is a gene?
Genes are stretches of DNA that carry instructions your cells use to make molecules or regulate activities in the body. Some genes give the directions for producing proteins, the parts of cells that do much of the work. Other genes mainly determine when certain processes happen, where they take place, and how strongly they are carried out. Taken together, genes affect how the body grows and works, and they can also influence how you respond to food, stress, and medications. You can explore this topic further in the LearnHub.
Overview
ADAMTS14Gene function
What if the gene works
The ADAMTS14 gene helps your body process collagen, a main building block of skin, tendons, and other connective tissues. This supports the strength and structure of tissues throughout the body.
Risk
What if the gene does not work
Milder to more severe variants in the ADAMTS14 gene can reduce how well cells trim procollagen, an early step in building strong collagen fibers. This may disrupt collagen assembly and the structure of connective tissue outside cells.
Treatment
What does that mean for your treatment
No ADAMTS14-specific treatment or management approach is currently established in clinical guidelines, so treatment is guided by your symptoms and overall diagnosis rather than the ADAMTS14 gene itself.
Gene function
What if the gene works
Your body needs collagen to give tissues strength and shape. The ADAMTS14 gene helps prepare collagen after it is made so it can be built into sturdy fibers. This supports healthy connective tissue, the material that holds and links body structures.
The ADAMTS14 gene helps trim extra pieces from newly made collagen before fibers are assembled. This step lets collagen molecules line up properly for the next stage of tissue building.
Once collagen is trimmed, it can join with other collagen molecules to form strong fibers outside cells. This is a core part of what the ADAMTS14 gene does in collagen formation and connective tissue support.
By supporting normal collagen assembly, this gene helps maintain the extracellular matrix (the supportive material around cells). That framework gives many tissues their usual strength, structure, and flexibility.
What is a variant?
A genetic variant is a minor difference in the DNA sequence within a gene. These differences are common and help shape normal human variation, such as differences in appearance, metabolism, or the way the body responds to environmental influences. Many variants do not cause any noticeable effect and are simply part of natural genetic diversity. In some cases, though, a variant changes how a gene works more substantially and can contribute to or cause a genetic condition.
Genetic variants
What if the gene does not work
Changes in the ADAMTS14 gene can alter the shape, stability, or release of its enzyme, so less working protein reaches the space outside cells. This shows how variants influence the ADAMTS14 gene's function: milder variants may partly reduce enzyme activity or binding, while more severe variants can truncate the protein or disrupt its working part, leaving little or no activity.
How variants are linked to conditions
ADAMTS14 does not yet have a broadly confirmed link to a specific health condition, although research on health conditions linked to ADAMTS14 gene variants is still developing. If you have a confirmed ADAMTS14 finding on genetic testing, your doctor or genetic counselor can explain what that result may mean in the context of your own health and family history.
A variant is not necessarily a diagnosis
Genetic variants are a usual part of human biology and are widely found in the general population. Most do not have a direct effect on health and instead reflect natural human diversity. For many genes, having a variant associated with a condition points to a possible link rather than a definite diagnosis, especially when several genes and environmental factors play a role. In some situations, though, a single well-characterized variant in a particular gene can be enough to confirm a diagnosis.
Are there things that can increase or change my risk?
There is not yet broadly confirmed evidence on specific factors that increase or reduce health risk related to the ADAMTS14 gene. If testing shows a change in ADAMTS14, the effect can vary by the exact change and by personal and family history, so a doctor or genetic counselor can help put that result in context.
Inheritance of ADAMTS14 variants
There is not yet a broadly confirmed Mendelian inheritance pattern tied to a specific ADAMTS14-related condition, so how ADAMTS14 gene variants are inherited in a disease setting is still being clarified. Research links the ADAMTS14 gene to connective tissue biology, but no single, well-established dominant, recessive, or X-linked pattern is used routinely in clinical genetics for this gene. The ADAMTS14 gene is located on chromosome 10, which is an autosome, so you inherit one copy from each parent.
What does my ADAMTS14 result mean for my family?
There is not yet a broadly confirmed inheritance pattern tied to a specific, well-established health condition for ADAMTS14. If you have a specific ADAMTS14 result and want to understand what it could mean for parents, siblings, or children, a doctor or genetic counselor can review your exact result in the context of your family history.
Genetic information
Genetic testing
How you find out about variants
To find out whether you carry a change in the ADAMTS14 gene, doctors use genetic testing for ADAMTS14 variants on a blood or saliva sample. A lab reads the DNA code in the ADAMTS14 gene and compares it with the usual sequence to identify variants, which may be classified as benign, uncertain, or linked to disease.
When should I consider getting a genetic test?
At this time, there is not a broadly established reason to test the ADAMTS14 gene in routine care. Testing decisions are best made with a doctor or genetic counselor, based on your symptoms, family history, and whether broader genetic testing makes sense.
A genetic result is only one part of your health story
Genetic test results can be informative, but how much they reveal depends on the condition and on the specific type of variant. Many other factors, including lifestyle, environment, age, and medical history, also shape how the body works over time. In some conditions, especially those influenced by many genes, genetic information offers context rather than certainty and is most useful when viewed alongside other parts of care. In other situations, a genetic result can provide a clear answer. In areas such as medication response, these results can also help put individual experiences into perspective.
Pharmacogenetics
How variants shape your response to medicine
Genetic variation can affect how people respond to medicines. This helps explain why the same treatment works well for one person, seems weaker for another, or causes more side effects in someone else. Part of the reason is that inherited differences can change how the body breaks down a drug, moves it through the bloodstream, or responds to it at its target. These differences are common and can influence both how well a medicine works and how sensitive a person may be to it.
What is Pharmacogenetics?
Pharmacogenetics examines how differences in genes can shape a person’s response to medication. It studies links between genes and drugs to help explain why treatment effects differ from one person to the next. For many medicines, genes influence how the body processes a drug and how strongly it acts. This information can support more informed and more individualized treatment decisions. To explore this subject further, more information is available in the LearnHub.
Drugs influenced by the ADAMTS14 gene
When should I seek medical advice?
There is not yet a broadly confirmed role for this gene in guiding medication response, so general questions about medicines, side effects, or changes in treatment are best discussed with your doctor.