Figure 4

Cell density affects conversion efficiency. (A) The fraction of acinar cells that convert to islet cells increases with decreasing cell density, as shown for three values of lateral stabilization strength, b=1 (dotted), b=0.1 (solid), b=0.01 (dashed). (B) Examples of the steady-state situation (acinar cells in red and islet cells in blue) for three different cell densities as indicated on the dashed curve (b=0.01, densities 0.25, 0.50 and 0.75). Note the presence of compact clusters of stable acinar cells in the middle panel. (C) Shape of cellular aggregates determines the efficiency of conversion. A decrease in compactness, measured as average neighbors per cell, increases the islet cell yield. Parameters as in Table 1, b as indicated.