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16 - The developmental environment and the endocrine pancreas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2009

By
Brigitte Reusens ,
Luise Kalbe  and
Claude Remacle
Edited by
Peter Gluckman  and
Mark Hanson
Brigitte Reusens
Affiliation:
Université Catholique de Louvain
Luise Kalbe
Affiliation:
Université Catholique de Louvain
Claude Remacle
Affiliation:
Université Catholique de Louvain
Peter Gluckman
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Mark Hanson
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
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Summary

Introduction

The intrauterine environment is the first to which the conceptus is exposed and it is strongly influenced by the mother's health. In this chapter we will focus on the development of the endocrine pancreas. A disturbed intrauterine metabolic milieu would contribute to inappropriate β-cell ontogeny, resulting in a population of β cells that does not adequately cope with metabolic or oxidative stress later in life. This hypothesis obviously cannot be verified in humans; therefore various animal models have been established.

Development of the endocrine pancreas in the rodent

The development of the pancreas in rodents shows similarities to that in humans. However, while fetal β cells are functioning as true endocrine cells at the end of the first trimester in humans (Piper et al. 2004), this occurs only during the last third of gestation in the rat. The development of the pancreas is a fascinating event, starting from a pool of common progenitor cells (multipotent endodermal progenitors) which will be committed into the endocrine or exocrine cell lineages or become duct cells. Then, within the endocrine compartment, the cells will have to further differentiate into α, β, δ or PP cells producing glucagon, insulin, somatostatin or the pancreatic polypeptide respectively. This is regulated by the expression of distinct genes, under the control of a hierarchy of various specific networks of transcription factors.

Type
Chapter
Information
Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , pp. 233 - 243
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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