A stochastic process algebra approach to simulation of autoreactive lymphocyte recruitment

This article presents a stochastic model of lymphocyte recruitment in inflamed brain microvessels. Recent studies about the inflammatory process of the brain that leads to multiple sclerosis have revealed that lymphocyte extravasation is a sequence of dynamical states, mediated by partially overlapped interactions of different adhesion molecules and activation factors. This study's model of lymphocyte recruitment is based on process algebras for mobile systems. The biochemical system is modelled as a set of concurrent processes of the biochemical stochastic π-calculus. Processes are driven by suitable probability distributions that quantitatively describe the rates and the times at which reactions to simulations occur. The results of the model reproduce, within the estimated experimental errors, the functional behavior of the data obtained from laboratory measurements. © 2004 The Society for Modeling and Simulation International.