PubMed · 12370418
B cells develop in the zebrafish pancreas.
Abstract
The zebrafish, with its transparent free-living embryo, is a useful organism for investigating early stages in lymphopoiesis. Previously, we showed that T cells differentiate in the thymus by day 4, but no sites for B cell differentiation were seen until 3 weeks. We report here that on day 4, we detect rearrangements of genes encoding B cell receptors in DNA extracted from whole fish. Also by day 4, rag1 transcripts are seen in the pancreas, an organ not previously associated with lymphopoiesis; by day 10, Igmu transcripts are detected here. Thus, in zebrafish, the pancreas assumes the role of both the liver in fetal mice and the spleen in neonatal mice.
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Nadia Danilova, Lisa A Steiner. 2002-10-07. B cells develop in the zebrafish pancreas.. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.212515999
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