METHOD OF FORMING VERTEBRATE PANCREAS IN VITRO

摘要

A method, whereby a pancreas induced in vitro which enables the provision of findings on the differentiation and formation mechanisms of pancreas and thu s is useful in development technology or organ technology, a pancreas for transplantation by which it can be evaluated whether or not a pancreas induc ed in vitro can function in practice in vivo, or a pancreas induced in vitro which contributes to the development of diagnosis and treatment for higher animals, can be artificially and efficiently induced from a gastrula exclude d from the prospective region of pancreas. Pancreas is formed in vitro by treating the blastpore upper lip of a vertebrate such as Xenopus with retino ic acid and then culturing. The treatment with retinoic acid can be carried out by, for example, treating with retinoic acid at a concentration of 10-5 M or above for 3 hours.