Evolution of Specificity in an Immune Network

✍ Scribed by KOUJI HARADA; TAKASHI IKEGAMI

• Book ID: 102611336
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 203 KB
• Volume: 203
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5193
• DOI: 10.1006/jtbi.2000.2001

✦ Synopsis

A dynamic antigen response of the immune network is discussed, based on shape-space modelling. The present model extends the shape-space modelling by introducing the evolution of speci"city of idiotypes. When the amount of external antigen increases, a measure of stability of the immune network is lost and thus the network can respond to the antigen. It is shown that speci"c and non-speci"c responses emerge as a function of antigen amounts. A speci"c response is observed with a "xed-point attractor, and a non-speci"c response is observed with a chaotic attractor for the lymphocyte population dynamics. The network topology also changes between "xed-point and chaotic attractors. For some antigen amounts, chaotic attractors will vanish or become long-lived super-transient states. A dynamic bellshaped response function will thus emerge. The relevance of long-lived chaotic transient states embedded in "xed-point attractors is discussed with respect to immune functions.