Lateral Interactions Account for the Pattern of the Hair Cell Array in the Chick Basilar Papilla

The study investigated the pattern of hair cells and supporting cells in the chick basilar papilla, suggesting that lateral interactions between multipotent precursors, particularly involving the Delta-Notch signaling pathway, played a crucial role in cell differentiation. The research involved counting hair and supporting cell nuclei in the papilla of three post-hatch chicks and using computer simulations to model the cell array. The findings indicated that Delta expression by emerging hair cells inhibited adjacent cells from becoming hair cells, promoting them to become supporting cells, resulting in a non-adjacent arrangement of hair cells. The study concluded that the observed pattern could be explained by a hexagonally packed array of cells, with various possible configurations of supporting to hair cell ratios, supporting the hypothesis of lateral inhibition in cell patterning.