FGFR1-IIIb is a putative marker of pancreatic progenitor cells

The pancreas develops from buds that derive from the endodermal epithelium of the digestive tract. The progenitor cells that will give rise to the mature pancreatic cells reside within this epithelium. However, their exact identity remains unknown. In the present study, we searched for genes expressed by pancreatic progenitor cells. We focused our search on receptor tyrosine kinases. We found that fibroblast growth factor-IIIb (FGFR1-IIIb) expression is high in pancreatic epithelium enriched in progenitor cells. We next investigated FGFR1-IIIb expression throughout pancreatic development. At early stages of pancreas development, FGFR1-IIIb is expressed by pancreatic epithelial cells that resemble undifferentiated cells, while at later stages of development, FGFR1-IIIb expression decreases, concomitant with the expected decrease in the number of progenitor cells.