Kinkel Mary D, Prince Victoria E
Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Bioessays. 2009 Feb;31(2):139-52. doi: 10.1002/bies.200800123.
Development of the vertebrate pancreas is a complex stepwise process comprising regionalization, cell differentiation, and morphogenesis. Studies in zebrafish are contributing to an emerging picture of pancreas development in which extrinsic signaling molecules influence intrinsic transcriptional programs to allow ultimate differentiation of specific pancreatic cell types. Zebrafish experiments have revealed roles for several signaling molecules in aspects of this process; for example our own work has shown that retinoic acid signals specify the pre-pancreatic endoderm. Time-lapse imaging of live zebrafish embryos has started to provide detailed information about early pancreas morphogenesis. In addition to modeling embryonic development, the zebrafish has recently been used as a model for pancreas regeneration studies. Here, we review the significant progress in these areas and consider the future potential of zebrafish as a diabetes research model.
脊椎动物胰腺的发育是一个复杂的逐步过程，包括区域化、细胞分化和形态发生。斑马鱼研究有助于呈现胰腺发育的新图景，即外在信号分子影响内在转录程序，以实现特定胰腺细胞类型的最终分化。斑马鱼实验揭示了几种信号分子在这一过程中的作用；例如，我们自己的研究表明视黄酸信号决定了胰腺前内胚层。对活斑马鱼胚胎的延时成像已开始提供有关早期胰腺形态发生的详细信息。除了用于模拟胚胎发育外，斑马鱼最近还被用作胰腺再生研究的模型。在这里，我们回顾了这些领域的重大进展，并探讨了斑马鱼作为糖尿病研究模型的未来潜力。
