Two-cell correlations in biological tissues

Abstract

We present two-cell correlation functions ${\mathit{m}}_{\mathit{l}}$(n), which give the average number of l-sided cells adjacent to n-sided ones, obtained experimentally from vegetable tissues and through a numerical simulation that includes mitosis of biological-tissue growth. The correlation functions are not always linear in n, but the Aboav-Weaire law is obeyed, indicating that it is valid for biological tissues and that recent arguments applied to purely topological models are not valid for all natural systems.