Endocrine Abstracts

Endocrine cells of the intestine, pancreas and adrenal gland develop from the endoderm and neural crest, respectively. Despite their different developmental origins, we discovered that these distinct endocrine cells rely on a common transcription factor, Insm1, that controls their development. The Insm1 (insulinoma-associated 1, IA-1) gene encodes a zinc-finger factor that was discovered in an insulinoma cDNA library. We show that pancreatic and intestinal endocrine cells as w...