Figure 2.

Patterns of differentiated cells emerging in different scenarios of cell-to-cell communication and for different degrees of adhesion among cells. We show a control scenario of individual cells where, independently of the communication type, cells always reached a steady state where A ≥ I (blue cells). Another control scenario shows the simulation of a population of cells without adhesion. In this case, when indirect communication is allowed, different cell states are reached (blue cells: A ≥ I; red cells: I > A), without any patterning. When cellular adhesion is introduced and is high, three different patterns of differentiated cells are attained. If adhesion is low (i.e., cellular movement allowed) these patterns are qualitatively similar, but are not stable.