mortality/aging
• lethality at early postnatal stages with no mice obtained at P21, but normal numbers at E18.5
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endocrine/exocrine glands
• alternations in epithelial organization of the pancreas start to be seen at E14.5
• pancreas contains a multi-layer epithelium rather than the normal single-layer of Foxa2low cells, with the additional layers consisting mostly of Foxa2high cells and are negative for the ductal cell marker Sox9, indicating a defect during endocrine lineage acquisition
• pancreas shows an increased number of retained endocrine progenitor/endocrine precursor/endocrine cells (Nkx6-1high/Sox9-) within the epithelium
• pancreas shows an increased direct attachment between proto-islets and the epithelium, indicating impaired endocrine cell egression
• the typical proto-islet rearrangement, in which alpha cells are at the periphery and beta cells at the core, are disrupted in pancreas
• pancreas exhibits an increase in the number of alpha cells at the expense of beta cells at E14.5-E18.5, indicating a shift in beta- to alpha-cell fate
• however pancreatic epithelium is normal at E12.5 and E13.5 and ductal and acinar differentiation and morphogenesis are normal
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