Modelling the Control of an Immune Response Through Cytokine Signalling

摘要

This paper presents the computer aided simulation of a model for the control of an immune response. This model has been developed to investigate the proposed hypothesis that the same cytokine that amplifies an initiated response can eventually lead to its downregulation, if it can act on more than one cell type. The simulation environment is composed of effector cells and regulatory cells; the former, when activated, initiate an immune response, while the latter are responsible for controlling the magnitude of the response. The signalling that coordinates this process is modelled using stimulation and regulation cytokines. Simulation results obtained, in accordance with the motivating idea, are presented and discussed.