Spatiotemporal expression of D10Wsu52e in the developing mouse pancreas.

D10Wsu52e is a recently discovered and highly conserved mouse gene. FAAP, the protein encoded by D10Wsu52e, participates in regulation of integrin-based focal adhesions. To explore the function of FAAP in pancreas development, we assessed the spatiotemporal expression of D10Wsu52e, paxillin and vinculin in the developing mouse pancreas through quantitative RT-PCR, in situ hybridization and histochemistry methods. Our results show that, at e9.5 and e10.5, D10Wsu52e mRNA is mainly expressed in the brain, optic vesicles, otic vesicles, limb buds, somites and gut, and also in the pancreatic buds at e10.5. Subsequently, D10Wsu52e mRNA is expressed mainly in the epithelial progenitors at e12.5, then decreases in the endocrine precursors and ductal cells, whereas still maintains in the exocrine precursors until e15.5. At e17.5, D10Wsu52e mRNA is highly expressed in exocrine acinar cells, but weakly in ductal and endocrine cells. Furthermore, the expression patterns of paxillin and vinculin mRNAs are similar to D10Wsu52e from e12.5 to e15.5, which suggests that D10Wsu52e may be related to the acinar development, adhesion and migration of progenitors and endocrine precursors.