Neurogenin 3 (NEUROG3)

Neurogenin-3 is expressed in endocrine progenitor cells and is required for endocrine cell development in the pancreas and intestine. It belongs to a family of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors involved in the determination of neural precursor cells in the neuroectoderm.

In pancreas and brain the major splicing isoform does not code for a protein, potentially a regulatory mechanism as overexpression of the protein causes exit from cell cycle and depletion of the progenitor pool.Expression was detectable as early as embryonic day 9 and persisted until day 14. Ngn3 was also expressed in the developing hypothalamic region and in pancreatic islet cell progenitors.