Regulation of beta-cell development

It is also important to realize that in the human, unlike the mouse, cells of the different stages can be present simultaneously in the developing pancreas and the linear representation of these developmental events shown here is an over-simplification of the actual developmental process (e.g., Sarkar et al. 2008).

The first stage of this process involves the predifferentiated epithelial cells of the two pancreatic anlagen that arise from the definitive endoderm at approximately somite stages 11-15 and undergo budding from somite stages 20-22. This period corresponds to gestational days 8.75-9.5 in the mouse, and 26 in the human.

Pancreatic buds subsequently coalesce to form a single primitive gland, while concomitantly a ductal tree lined by highly proliferative epithelial cells is formed. A subset of such epithelial cells is thought to differentiate into either endocrine or acinar exocrine cells. A third cellular stage is defined by the endocrine-committed progenitors that selectively express the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor NEUROG3. NEUROG3 is known to activate a complex transcriptional network that is essential for the specification of endocrine cells. Many transcription factors that are activated by NEUROG3 are also involved in islet-subtype cellular specification and in subsequent stages of differentiation of endocrine cells. This transient cellular stage thus leads to the generation of all known pancreatic endocrine cells, including insulin-producing beta-cells, and glucagon-producing alpha cells, the final stage of this schematic developmental process.

The diagram below summarizes interactions that take place between transcription factors and transcription factor target genes during these cellular stages, and shows cases where there is both functional evidence that a transcription factor is required for the target gene to be expressed, and biochemical evidence that this interaction is direct. We also describe instances where a signaling pathway is known to regulate a transcription factor gene in this process, even if the intervening signaling pathway is not fully understood.