• N J Burroughs, Bruno Miguel Paz Mendes de Oliveira, and Alberto Adrego Pinto.
• Mathematics Institute, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. njb@maths.warwick.ac.uk
• J. Theor. Biol. 2006 Jul 7; 241 (1): 134-41.

AbstractThe consequences of regulatory T cell (Treg) inhibition of interleukine 2 secretion is examined by mathematical modelling. We demonstrate that cytokine dependent growth exhibits a quorum T cell population threshold that determines if immune responses develop on activation. Secretion inhibition manipulates the growth dynamics and effectively increases the quorum threshold, i.e. to develop immune responses a higher number of T cells need to be activated. Thus Treg induced secretion inhibition can provide a mechanism for tissue specific regulation of the balance between suppression (control) and immune responses, a balance that can be varied at the local tissue level through the regulation of the local active Treg population size. However, nonspecific inhibition is prone to escape of initially controlled autoimmune T cells through cross reactivity to pathogens and bystander proliferation on unrelated immune responses.

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