The computer leucocyte. Analysis of the random movement of leucocytes in a visual field by means of computer...

In vital preparations moving polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMNs) disappear from the visual field. The present study provides evidence by means of geometrical analysis and computer simulation, that this disappearance is due to a heterogeneous distribution of the PMNs at the beginning of observation. The path of random-moving computer leucocytes is more tortuous than the path of comparable vital PMNs without obvious attractant, i.e. vital PMNs supposed to be random-moving. This finding is in agreement with the Allan-Wilkinson observation of 'persistent random walk' of vital cells.