GROWTH AND DECAY OF A CELLULAR-POPULATION IN A MULTICELL IMMUNE NETWORK

An interacting network of eight binary cellular elements is used to model some of the general features of immune response in an immune weakness disease. Both humoral as well as cell mediated responses are considered. Two logical intercell interactions are examined. With infinite-range interactions both models lead to 24 fixed points (stable configurations) with various degrees of immunocompetence and immunodeficiency. A simple cubic lattice is used with a cellular automata to take into account a nearest-neighbour intracell interaction. The evolution of cellular populations is studied for a random binary mixture of these two interactions with probability f and a crossover is observed from an immunodeficient state for f below a characteristic value f c( approximately=0.8) to an immunocompetent state above it.