Efferocytosis: Macrophage Clearance Race Against Secondary Necrosis (2D)

Trillions of cells die by apoptosis in the human body every day, and almost none of it is ever seen as inflammation — because resident macrophages clear the corpses before they rupture. This simulator models that race on a 2D tissue field: apoptotic cells appear in a patch of tissue and emit a diffusing "find-me" chemotactic field that macrophages steer up, exposing phosphatidylserine "eat-me" signals that ramp up over time and gate a real engulfment probability, all while each macrophage's phagocytic capacity is finite and must digest cargo before taking on more. Watch what happens to the rupture rate as you overwhelm macrophage capacity with a faster apoptosis rate, or shorten the secondary-necrosis window until inflammatory DAMP release starts to dominate — and how adding more macrophages, or making each one faster, drives that rate back down.