Abstract
Hoffmann (1982) analysed a very simple model of suppressive idiotypic immune networks and showed that idiotypic interactions are stabilizing. He concluded that immune networks provide a counterexample to the general analysis of large dynamic systems (Gardner and Ashby, 1970; May, 1972). The latter is often verbalized as: an increase in size and/or connectivity decreases the system stability. We here analyse this apparent contradiction by extending the Hoffmann model (with a decay term), and comparing it to an ecological model that was used as a paradigm in the general analysis. Our analysis confirms that the neighbourhood stability of such idiotypic networks increases with connectivity and/or size. However, the contradiction is one of interpretation, and is not due to exceptional properties of immune networks. The contradiction is caused by the awkward normalization used in the general analysis.
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De Boer, R.J., Hogeweg, P. Stability of symmetric idiotypic networks—a critique of Hoffmann's analysis. Bltn Mathcal Biology 51, 217–222 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458443
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458443