PROJECTS:
Hindbrain patterning
Evo-devo
Pancreas development

PROJECTS: Pancreas Development

Mary Kinkel - Research Associate (Assistant Professor), Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy
Gokhan Dalgin - JDRF Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy
Stefani Eames - Graduate student, Committee on Molecular Metabolism and Nutrition
Ranjani Logaraj - Undergraduate Student, Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy
Crystal Love - Graduate student, Committee on Developmental Biology

        
The zebrafish pancreas closely resembles the mammalian pancreas. It comprises both endocrine cells, the pancreatic islets responsible for blood sugar homeostasis, and exocrine cells, which function in digestion. In general, development of the zebrafish pancreas is well conserved with mammals. The zebrafish therefore provides a useful model system in which to study pancreas development. Ongoing projects focus on understanding the mechanisms through which pancreatic progenitors are specified from undifferentiated endoderm. Insights from normal development can inform protocols to differentiate stem cells into pancreatic islets in vitro. Such islets will eventually be useful for transplantation therapies to cure diabetes.

Legend: The zebrafish dorsal pancreatic bud. Endoderm is labeled in green, insulin-positive beta cells in red and islet1-positive endocrine cells in blue. (Click the image to view QuickTime movie)

Selected Papers:

Stafford D and Prince VE. 2002. Retinoic acid signaling is required for a critical early step in zebrafish pancreatic development. Current Biology 12, 1215-1220. (PubMed)

Stafford D, Hornbruch A, Mueller PR and Prince VE. 2004. A conserved role for retinoid signaling in vertebrate pancreas development. Development, Genes and Evolution 214, 432-411. (PubMed)

Stafford D, White R, Kinkel, M, Linville A Schilling TF and Prince VE. 2006. Retinoids signal directly to zebrafish endoderm to specify insulin-expressing beta-cells. Development 133, 949-956. (PubMed)

Ward, AB, Warga, RM and Prince VE. 2007. Origin of the zebrafish endocrine and exocrine pancreas. Developmental Dynamics 236, 1558-1569. (PubMed)

Kinkel MD, Eames SC, Alonzo MA and Prince VE. 2008. Cdx4 has multiple roles in pancreas development and is required in the endoderm to correctly localize the foregut. Development 135, 919-929. (PubMed)

Elsen, GE, Choi LY, Prince VE and Ho RK. The autism susceptibility gene met regulates zebrafish cerebellar development and facial motor neuron migration. Dev Biol. 2009 (in press) (PubMed)

Kinkel MD and Prince VE. 2009. On the diabetic menu: Zebrafish as a model for pancreas development and function. Bioessays. Bioessays. 31, 139-152. (PubMed)

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