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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2022, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (5): 432-441.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.22-022

• Research Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Study on Lgr5 expression in pancreas tissues and organoids by lineage tracing

Bingru Yan1(), Xianhui Ai1, Miao Liu1, Lihong Tian2, Yang Liang1, Chun-Bo Teng1()   

  1. 1. College of Life Science, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
    2. College of Wildlife and Protected Area, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
  • Received:2022-01-26 Revised:2022-03-26 Online:2022-05-20 Published:2022-04-18
  • Contact: Teng Chun-Bo E-mail:heylr5553@163.com;chunboteng@nefu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(32072801)

Abstract:

Leucine rich repeat containing G protein-coupled receptor 5(Lgr5) is widely expressed in multiple tissues and can be used as a stem cell marker in a variety of epithelial organs (including the small intestine, colon, stomach and hair follicles). In this study, we used Lgr5-CreERT2+/- and Rosa26-mTmG hybridized transgenic mice to investigate the expression of Lgr5 in both ductal epithelial cells during pancreas development and in vitro cultured pancreatic duct organoids. After induction with Tamoxifen, the Lgr5 expression was analyzed by detecting the enhanced green fluorescence protein in the pancreatic tissue sections in adult animals and embryos at different developmental stages. The results showed that Lgr5 expression was detected neither in adult pancreatic duct epithelia nor in the embryonic pancreatic tissues at day 15.5 or in newborn mice. However, when 4-hydroxy-Tamoxifen was supplemented to the culture medium, EGFP could be detected in the primary pancreatic duct organoids from Lgr5-Cre ERT2+/-; Rosa26-mTmG mice. These results suggested that Lgr5 was not expressed in adult and embryonic pancreatic tissues; but could be expressed in the cultured pancreas ductal organoids. The research lays the foundation for exploring specific gene expression patterns in stem/progenitor cells during pancreatic development.

Key words: pancreas, duct, Lgr5, organoid, lineage tracing