Differential adhesion
From Biology-Online Dictionary
The differential adhesion hypothesis was advanced by Steinberg to explain the mechanism by which heterotypic cells in mixed aggregates sort out into isotypic territories. Quantitative differences in homo and hetero typic adhesion are supposed to be sufficient to account for the phenomenon without the need to postulate cell type specific adhesion systems: fairly generally accepted, although some tissue specific cell adhesion molecules are now known to exist.
