Fig. 4

Schematic figure of model A. Components in blue, green and purple refer to the cell types and biological processes represented at all stages in the experiment (i.e. prior and post infection with PRRSV or mock agent). Components in red show additional cell types and processes after introduction of PRRSV into the cell cultures. C ₋ and C ₊ represent PAMs without/with the CD163 receptor on the cell surface, respectively, while C ₊₋ represent cells that have shed the CD163 receptor. Only C ₊ cells are assumed susceptible to PRRSV. Cells indicated with ‘*’ denote infected cells. See main text for more detailed description of the model, Additional file 4 for the mathematical representation of the model, and Additional file 5 for a description of the model parameters