Ascension of Chlamydia is moderated by uterine peristalsis and the neutrophil response to infection
Fig 2
The figure outlines each component of the model that are incorporated in the analysis. Extracellular chlamydia can form inclusions to created new infected cells, and infected cells can burst to create new extracellular chlamydia. Both extracellular chlamydia and infected cells can be removed by the immune system, and be migrated to the cervical canal via the neutrophil response. In the cervical canal, infected cells can burst to create new chlamydia, but not vice versa. Extracellular Chlamydia and infected cells in the cervical canal be removed via peristalsis. The parameters of each component from the model are drawn from distributions that represent host and pathogen specific factors. The impact of each factor is represented as the proportion of simulations where the infection ascended for each parameter in the model in the following figures, out of a total of 252,500 simulations that were run.