Development of the mammalian liver and ventral pancreas is dependent on GATA4

Background In the mouse, the parenchyma of both the liver and ventral pancreas is specified from adjacent domains of the ventral foregut endoderm. GATA4, a zinc finger transcription factor, is strongly expressed in these endodermal domains and molecular analyses have implicated GATA4 in potentiating liver gene expression during the onset of hepatogenesis. We therefore hypothesized that GATA4 has an integral role in controlling the early stages of pancreatic and liver development.