Abstract
We analyze under different environmental conditions the occurrence of bistability, i.e. of two simultaneously stables steady states, in a biological model system which describes the immunological interactions of neoplastic-target cells and cytotoxic-effector cells. As a result of environmental fluctuations such complex biological systems may undergo drastic modifications of their steady state properties. In particular, when the variance of fluctuations increases around a well defined mean value, transition phenomena appear which are absent in the usual bifurcation diagrams. The properties of the non-fluctuating systems can no longer be considered as a first approximation of the properties of the real system. Interestingly, in the case of the model, these transitions correspond to a rejection of tumor cells.
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Lefever, R., Horsthemke, W. Bistability in fluctuating environments. Implications in tumor immunology. Bltn Mathcal Biology 41, 469–490 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458325
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02458325