Pancreatic Tissue Development

Development of pancreatic tissue architecture.

Illustration of the process through which the pancreatic tissue takes on the architecture of the mature pancreas. Initially, pancreatic buds are made up of a bulk of proliferating epithelial cells, which begin to form microlumens at E10.5. The cells around the lumens acquire a trunk or tip identity, wherein the trunk cells form pancreatic ducts and endocrine cells, while tip cells generally form the exocrine acinar cells. As the cells form branching ducts and acini with interspersed endocrine islets of Langerhans, the structure becomes more complex and assumes the architecture of the mature pancreatic tissue.