The pre-pancreatic foregut endoderm cells of the ventral foregut are the first cells in this region to display pancreas-specific gene expression during development, and give rise to the cells which serve as the progenitors of all the pancreatic derivatives.The pre-pancreatic foregut endoderm cells are located in the pancreatic region of the endoderm and in the pancreatic buds.
Unlike the dorsal pancreatic bud, the ventral pancreatic bud develops from a population of cells that co-express Pdx1 and Sox17.