University of Utah; Department of Human Genetics; Salt Lake City, Utah USA.
Organogenesis. 2008 Apr;4(2):81-6. doi: 10.4161/org.4.2.5853.
The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, conserved across the animal kingdom, is critical for the development of numerous tissues. Several recent studies have focused on the roles that this pathway plays at different stages of pancreatic organogenesis, including specification, proliferation, differentiation and function. Whereas, during early endoderm development, inhibition of the pathway is required for pancreatic specification, subsequent growth and differentiation of the fetal organ depends on the pathway being active. This appears especially true for exocrine acinar cells, the specification and differentiation of which also depend on β-catenin function. Whether the pathway plays an important role in development or function of endocrine islet cells, including insulin-producing β-cells, remains controversial. This question is particularly important in light of recent studies that implicate a downstream component of the pathway, TCF7L2, in human β-cell function. This review will cover recent work on Wnt/β-catenin signaling in pancreas development, emphasizing those points of controversy that most urgently require further investigation.
Wnt/β-catenin 信号通路在动物界中广泛保守，对许多组织的发育至关重要。最近的几项研究集中在该通路在胰腺器官发生的不同阶段（包括特化、增殖、分化和功能）中所起的作用。然而，在早期内胚层发育过程中，通路的抑制对于胰腺特化是必需的，随后胎儿器官的生长和分化依赖于通路的活性。这对于外分泌腺泡细胞尤其如此，其特化和分化也依赖于β-catenin 的功能。该通路在包括胰岛素分泌β细胞在内的内分泌胰岛细胞的发育或功能中是否发挥重要作用仍存在争议。鉴于最近的研究表明该通路的下游成分 TCF7L2 参与了人类β细胞的功能，这个问题尤其重要。本文综述了 Wnt/β-catenin 信号通路在胰腺发育中的最新研究进展，强调了那些最迫切需要进一步研究的有争议的问题。
