Expression of paxillin during rat pancreatic development

    GUO Jing, TENG Liª²Ping, LIU Liª²Jie, CHENG Mei, LIN Yangª²Bo, DE Wei

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210029, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿AIM: To investigate the expression profile of genes related to islet formation and maturation during pancreas development. METHODS: The gene expression patterns in embryonic day 12.5(E12.5), E15.5, E18.5, newborn and adult pancreas were compared by using the GeneChip RAE 230A. The expressions of paxillin and actopaxin at different stages of rat pancreatic development were detected by RTª²PCR. RESULTS: Genes related to cell migration and adhesion (77.8%) were expressed at the highest level at E18.5, and the other ones (22.2%) peaked in newborn rats. The expression level of adult pancreas specific genes began to increase from E18.5, while some transcriptional factors¬ð expression began to decrease from E18.5. Paxillin and actopaxin were expressed at the highest level at E15.5. CONCLUSION: The later embryonic period may be important to pancreas development. Paxillin may play an important role in islet formation. ......