Wnt Crucial to Pancreas and Liver Development

Wnt Crucial to Pancreas and Liver Development

I reported a while ago (Ribbit! 5/11/06) on research being done at the University of Edinburgh on the African clawed frog. Now, according to a story on Scientist Live, the researchers have shown that in frogs the anterior endoderm, from which the liver, pancreas, intestinal lining, and other organs develop, is formed by a cascade action leading to production of the Wnt protein. Research on mouse embryonic stem cells suggests that the same action may exist in mammals and that Wnt may be useful in directing embryonic stem cells to differentiate into anterior endoderm cells. Another related finding is that turning off the Nodal protein is also important to the development of the anterior endoderm, and the researchers are trying to use Wnt to turn off the Nodal protein in mouse ESCs.