Pancreas Organogenesis: From Lineage Determination to Morphogenesis Hung Ping Shih, ∗ Allen Wang, ∗ and Maike Sander Departments of Pediatrics and Cellular & Molecular Medicine, Pediatric Diabetes Research Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0695; email: masander@ucsd.edu Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 2013. 29:81–105 First published online as a Review in Advance on July 31, 2013 The Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology is online at http://cellbio.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: 10.1146/annurev-cellbio-101512-122405 Copyright c  2013 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved ∗ Equal contributions. Keywords pancreas, development, progenitor, exocrine, endocrine, pluripotent stem cell Abstract The pancreas is an essential organ for proper nutrient metabolism and has both endocrine and exocrine function. In the past two decades, knowledge of how the pancreas develops during embryogenesis has significantly in- creased, largely from developmental studies in model organisms. Specifically, the molecular basis of pancreatic lineage decisions and cell differentiation is well studied. Still not well understood are the mechanisms governing three- dimensional morphogenesis of the organ. Strategies to derive transplantable β-cells in vitro for diabetes treatment have benefited from the accumu- lated knowledge of pancreas development. In this review, we provide an overview of the current understanding of pancreatic lineage determination and organogenesis, and we examine future implications of these findings for treatment of diabetes mellitus through cell replacement. 81 Annu. Rev. Cell Dev. Biol. 2013.29:81-105. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org by University of California - San Diego on 02/07/14. For personal use only.