A BIOSPI MODEL OF LYMPHOCYTE-ENDOTHELIAL INTERACTIONS IN INFLAMED BRAIN VENULES.pdfVIP

A BIOSPI MODEL OF LYMPHOCYTE-ENDOTHELIAL INTERACTIONS IN INFLAMED BRAIN VENULES P. LECCA AND C. PRIAMI Dipartimento di Informatica e Telecomunicazioni, Universita? di Trento {lecca,priami}@science.unitn.it C. LAUDANNA AND G. CONSTANTIN Dipartimento di Patologia Universita? di Verona {carlo.laudanna,gabriela.constantin}@univr.it This paper presents a stochastic model of the lymphocyte recruitment in inflammed brain microvessels. The framework used is based on stochastic process algebras for mobile systems. The automatic tool used in the simulation is the BioSpi. We compare our approach with classical hydrodinamical specifications. 1 Introduction Lymphocytes roll along the walls of vessels to survay the endothelial surface for chemotactic signals, which stimulate the lymphocyte to stop rolling and migrate through the endothelium and its supporting basement membrane. Lymphocyte adhesion to the endothelial wall is mediated by binding between cell surface receptors and complementary ligands expressed by the endothe- lium. The dynamic of adhesion is regulated by the bond association and dis- sociation rates: different values of these rates give rise to different dynamical behaviors of the cell adhesion. The most common approach to the simulation of rolling process of lym- phocyte is based on hydrodynamical models of the particle motion under nor- mal or stressed flow 1,16,18. At a macroscopic scale, the process is generally modeled with the typical equations of mass continuity, momentum transport and interfacial dynamic. At a microscopic scale, the cell rolling is simulated as a sequence of elastic jumps on the endothelial surface, that result from sequential breaking and formation of molecular bonds between ligands and receptors 16,6,9. This kind of model is able to simulate the time-evolution of bond density. A major challenge for a mechanical approach is to treat the disparate scales between the cell (typically of the order of micrometers) and the bonds (of the order o