Ein Modell der Plaquebildung

Abstract

A model has been developed to simulate the spread of virus infection in cell cultures. The structure of the model assumes that a) cells of two dimensional monolayers are regular hexagons, b) the number of infective units produced by a single cell is a Poisson distributed variable, c) a virus releasing cell can only infect neighbouring cells, and d) all neighbouring cells have an equal chance to become infected. The growth of model plaques was studied with the aid of a computer using different mean values (λ) of the Poisson distribution. The radius of model plaques increases linearly with time. The speed of this process depends upon the value of λ. The shape of the plaques varies and this variability is also a function of λ. The highest frequency of irregularly formed plaques is found when λ is 2.2. At low values of λ, plaque growth may end by itself. Model plaque formation has been compared with actual plaque formation by foot and mouth disease virus and good agreement was observed. The use of the model bor the study of other epidemiological phenomena is discussed.