Arylsulfatase A hydrolyzes cerebroside sulfate to cerebroside and sulfate. Defects in this gene lead to metachromatic leucodystrophy (MLD), a progressive demyelination disease which results in a variety of neurological symptoms and ultimately death. Multiple alternatively spliced transcript variants, one of which encodes a distinct protein, have been described for this gene

The predicted amino acid sequence comprised 507 residues, including a putative signal peptide of 18 residues. The sequence contains 3 potential N-glycosylation sites. The cDNA hybridized to 2.0- and 3.9-kb species in RNA from human fibroblasts and human liver.