Not all epicells are infectable. Within the alveoli, only the type II pneumocytes are, and they constitute about 60% of the cells, but are fairly widely spaced. They surround the much bigger type II's and are probably at least 15 microns apart. They are themselves 9 microns across. Within the bronchioles, only the club cells are infectable. We need to reflect that in the model. I think this means that grid points should be 9 or 10 microns apart, because we have no mechanism of representing an epicell spanning multiple grid points. I also think we'll need to have epicells marked as either infectable or invulnerable, because we don't want empty air (null ptrs for epicells) when there are actually cells there, because T cells don't move through empty spaces, so it would block their progress. Presumably we can incorporate these strictures into the structure/network generation code.
Not all epicells are infectable. Within the alveoli, only the type II pneumocytes are, and they constitute about 60% of the cells, but are fairly widely spaced. They surround the much bigger type II's and are probably at least 15 microns apart. They are themselves 9 microns across. Within the bronchioles, only the club cells are infectable. We need to reflect that in the model. I think this means that grid points should be 9 or 10 microns apart, because we have no mechanism of representing an epicell spanning multiple grid points. I also think we'll need to have epicells marked as either infectable or invulnerable, because we don't want empty air (null ptrs for epicells) when there are actually cells there, because T cells don't move through empty spaces, so it would block their progress. Presumably we can incorporate these strictures into the structure/network generation code.