Regulatory phases of early liver development: paradigms of organogenesis.
Genetic analysis, embryonic tissue explantation and in vivo chromatin studies have together identified the distinct regulatory steps that are necessary for the development of endoderm into a bud of liver tissue and, subsequently, into an organ. In this review, I discuss the acquisition of competence to express liver-specific genes by the endoderm, the control of early hepatic growth, the coordination of hepatic and vascular development and the cell differentiation that is necessary to generate a functioning liver. The regulatory mechanisms that underlie these phases are common to the development of many organ systems and might be recapitulated or disrupted during stem-cell differentiation and adult tissue pathogenesis.
Zaret
Kenneth S
KS
Cell and Developmental Biology Program, Fox Chase Cancer Center, 7701 Burholme Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19111, USA. zaret@fccc.edu
D000818:Animals; D019521:Body Patterning; D004475:Ectoderm / Q000502:physiology; D005314:Embryonic and Fetal Development / Q000502:physiology*; D004707:Endoderm / Q000502:physiology; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000196:embryology*