Saturation effects on T-cell activation in a model of a multi-stage pathogen
Abstract
In previous work, we studied host response to a pathogen which uses a cycle of immunologically distinct stages to establish and maintain infection. We showed that for generic parameter values, the system has a unique biologically meaningful stable fixed point. That paper used a simplified model of T-cell activation, making proliferation depend linearly on antigen-T-cell encounters. Here we generalize the way in which T-cell proliferation depends on the sizes of the antigenic populations. In particular, we allow this response to become saturated at high levels of antigen. As a result, we show that this family of generalized models shares the same steady-state behavior properties with the simpler model contemplated in our previous work.
- Publication:
-
arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- May 2012
- DOI:
- 10.48550/arXiv.1205.5735
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1205.5735
- Bibcode:
- 2012arXiv1205.5735S
- Keywords:
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- Quantitative Biology - Populations and Evolution;
- 92B05;
- 92D25
- E-Print:
- 10 pages, reasonably cool