Investigate the role of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in development of the exocrine pancreas. Mus musculus

beta-catenin is an essential mediator of canonical Wnt signaling and a central component of the cadherin-catenin epithelial adhesion complex. Dysregulation of beta-catenin expression has been described in pancreatic neoplasia. Newly published studies have suggested that beta-catenin is critical for normal pancreatic development although these reports reached somewhat different conclusions. In addition, the molecular mechanisms by which loss of beta-catenin affects pancreas development are not well understood. The goals of this study then were; 1] to further investigate the role of beta-catenin in pancreatic development using a conditional knockout approach and 2] to identify possible mechanisms by which loss of beta-catenin disrupts pancreatic development. A Pdx1-cre mouse line was used to delete a floxed beta-catenin allele specifically in the developing pancreas, and embryonic pancreata were studied by immunohistochemistry and microarray analysis. Keywords: Time course Overall design: Parameter: embryonic pancreas from wild type and Pdx1Cre/+; beta-cateninflox/flox Sample type: RNA Source name: Embryonic day 14.6 and 16.5 pancreas Organism: Mus Musculus Strain: Derived from an intercross of Pdx1Cre/+ ; beta-cateninflox/+ mice. Extracted molecule: Total RNA In the study, we hybridized RNA from Embryonic day 14.6 and 16.5 pancreas of wild type (WT) control and Pdx1Cre/+; beta-cateninflox/flox beta-catenin null in the pancreas) embryonic pancreas to Affymetrix MOE430 2.0 GeneChip® arrays containing 45,101 well characterized mouse genes/ESTs.