ANALYSES OF β-CELL DEVELOPMENT IN TRANSGENIC ZEBRAFISHW ITH A CONSTRUCT OF INSULIN PROMOTER AND GREEN FLUORESCENT PROTEIN

W ith many advantageous features such as small size, high production and fertilization in vitro, zebrafish has become a kind of themodel creature for the investigation of vertebrate development and human diseases. Sowe set up a transgenic zebrafish model to investigate the β-cell development1 Firstly, we obtained an INS: GFP construction that contains the zebrafish insulin (INS) promoter and green fluorescent protein (GFP).Secondly, we injected the construction into the cytoplasm of one-cell-stage embryos. F inally, we gained germline INS transgenic zebrafish that d isplayed highly specific β-cell expression ofGFP in both larvae and adult1 By following GFP expression, pancreas formation was detected at the 18h post-fertilization in the earliest time points between the second bilateral som ites, a group of GFP-positive cells located from ventral to the notochord. From day 1 to 5 post-fertilization,the number of insu lin/GFP expressing cells migrated and formed a right organ. Thus, ourworks demonstrated that the transgenic line provided a conven ient and d irect expermi ental tool in analyzing endocrine pancreas development, injury and recovery.