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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Bioessays. 2009 Feb;31(2):139–152. doi: 10.1002/bies.200800123

Figure 3. β-cell movement during islet formation.

Figure 3

A) Schematic of β-cell location during islet formation. Over time, insulin-positive β-cells increase in number, converge to form the islet, and move posteriorly. A, Anterior; P, Posterior; S, Somite. B) Live timelapse imaging reveals that β-cells move posteriorly during islet formation. Cdx4 knockdown results in farther movement of β-cells. Based on in situ hybridization, glucagon-positive β-cells and somatostatin2-positive β-cells are also initially located anteriorly in the trunk and subsequently surround the β-cell cluster within the more posteriorly located islet. It is thus likely that α- and δ-cells move posteriorly, similar to the β-cell movement revealed by live timelapse imaging. Brightfield and fluorescent images of insulin:GFP transgenics taken in dorsal view at 200x magnification and merged. Numbered brackets indicate somites.