Pancreas isolated from KC mice fed with an ethanol‐containing diet also showed higher expression of SATB2, pluripotency, and self‐renewal genes (Oct‐4, SOX‐2, cMyc, and KLF4), stem cell markers (CD24, CD44, and CD133), and N‐cadherin than those from mice fed with a control diet, suggesting that ethanol is capable of promoting stem cell characteristics in KC mice. Here, CD44 is linked to keratoconus.