AN AGE STRUCTURED MODEL OF T CELL POPULATIONS

Although it is well established that T cell populations dramatically fluctuate when the immune system responds to many diseases, many specifics of how T cell activation occurs are not understood. We develop a model that tracks T cell interactions with dendritic cells, which is a crucial process for activating adaptive immune responses. We assume that the duration of stimulation by dendritic cells in the lymph node determines the extent of T cell differentiation. In this paper, we first describe the general partial differential equation model with justifications for the modeling choices. Second, we present a few highlights of the mathematical analysis of the model with certain simplifying assumptions. Finally, we discuss some simulations of the full model and interpret the biological predictions the model suggests.