Fig. 2

Pancreas development, cell differentiation, and transdifferentiation. At E8.5, the dorsal and ventral endoderm thickens to form two buds, called dorsal buds and ventral buds respectively. Cells in the two buds are Pdx1⁺ multipotent progenitor cells. At E9.5, the curled structure forms. Subsequently, these multipotent stem cells differentiate into two domains that together form a ramified structure. “Tip” domain cells differentiated into Ptf1a⁺ acinar precursor cells, while “Trunk” domain cells differentiated into SOX9⁺ duct precursor cells and Ngn3⁺ endocrine precursor cells. Transdifferentiation of acinar cells and ductal cells into islet endocrine cells and ADM can occur in mature pancreas under specific conditions. Created in BioRender.com