Table 1.

Distribution of aquaporins in humans and the diseases associated with their dysfunction or absence. Modified from Verkman et al., 2014. [28].

Protein	Tissue Expression	Associated Diseases	Functions	References
AQP0	Fiber cells of the crystalline lens	Congenital cataracts	Cell adhesion	Verkman et al., 2002 [29]
AQP1	Erythrocytes, eye, choroid plexuses, kidneys, heart, lungs, vascular endothelium, skin, gastrointestinal tract, salivary gland, liver, testes, ovaries, and uterus, among others	Pulmonary, cerebral and peripheral edema, glaucoma, skin cancer	Urinary concentration, migration, proliferation	Ma et al., 1998 [33]; Osorio et al. [34]; Galan et al. [35,36,37].
AQP2	Renal collecting duct, ears, ductus deferens	Nephrogenic diabetes insipidus	ADH-Hormone dependent water reabsorption	Deen et al., 1994 [38]
AQP3	Kidneys, leukocytes, erythrocytes, skin, eyes, respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, ovaries	Skin and breast cancer	Sweating and skin elasticity. Glycerol homeostasis.	Echevarría et al., 1994; Ma et al., 2002; Levine and Verkman., 2006. [39,40,41]; Marlar et al. [42]; Osorio et al. [34]; Zhu et al. [43]; Azad et al. [44]
AQP4	Brain, retinas, salivary and lacrimal glands, olfactory and auditory epithelium, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, lungs, and skeletal muscle	Cerebral edema, deafness, anosmia	Control of brain water balance	Manley et al., 2000; Jarius et al., 2010 [31,45]
AQP5	Epithelia of lacrimal, sweat, and salivary glands, alveolar, bronchial, and tracheal mucosa, ovaries, kidneys, and skin	Bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, Sjögren’s syndrome, palmoplantar keratoderma	Absorption and secretion of water in pulmonary and salivary mucosa	Tsubota et al., 2001 [46]
AQP6	Intracellular vesicles of the renal collector tubule and brain	Unidentified	Unidentified	Yasui et al., 1999 [47]
AQP7	Adipose tissue, carotid body, testes, kidneys, heart, skeletal muscle, and ovaries	Hyperglycemia, platelet defect, obesity, inflammation	Lipid metabolism from adipocytes	Skowronki et al., 2007; Muñoz-Cabello et al., 2010 [48,49]; Da Silva et al. [50]
AQP8	Liver, pancreas, gastrointestinal tract, salivary glands, kidneys, lungs and trachea, testes, and ovaries	Cancer	Bile production	Huebert et al., 2002; Saparov et al., 2007 [51,52]; Zhu et al. [53]
AQP9	Liver, leukocytes, erythrocytes, testes, ovaries, brain, kidneys, and spleen	Hyperglycemia	Hepatic lipid metabolism	Amiry-Moghaddam et al., 2005 [54]
AQP10	Small intestine, specifically in the duodenum and jejunum	Psoriasis, skin dermatitis	Lipid metabolism	Ishibashi et al., 2002 [55]; Soler et al. [56]
AQP11	Testes, heart, kidneys, ovaries, muscles, gastrointestinal tract, leukocytes, liver, brain	Obesity and Inflammation	RE stress	Morishita et al., 2005; Koike et al., 2016 [57,58]; Frühbeck et al. [59]; Ishibashi et al. [60]
AQP12	Acinar cells of the pancreas	Inflammation	Pancreatic function	Boone and Deen., 2009 [61]; Da Silva et al. [50]