B Cell Activation Triggered by the Formation of the Small Receptor Cluster: A Computational Study
Figure 2
Visualization of the travelling wave solution.
Panel A: two stable stationary solutions for ,
,
and
. Panel B: propagation of the traveling wave connecting the two stable solutions shown at Panel A, initiated by a formation of a cluster of receptors at the upper cell pole. The aggregated fraction of receptors is F = 0.01 and the cluster size is
. For t = 250 s the whole cell is activated. The minimum and maximum value of the active kinase concentration are given in each panel. In Panel A the active kinase distribution
is spherically symmetric. In Panel B the active kinase distribution
is not reaching the spherical symmetry even for t = 250 s the small cluster of receptors at the upper pole causes that locally the active kinase concentration is elevated with respect to spherically symmetric case (0.77 versus 0.88).