caa a22 4500 445391731 CHVBK 20180317143048.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110401xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10955-011-0144-8 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10955-011-0144-8 Košmrlj Andrej Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 02139, Cambridge, MA, USA aut Thymic Selection of T Cells as Diffusion withIntermittent Traps [Elektronische Daten] [Andrej Košmrlj] T cells orchestrate adaptive immune responses by recognizing short peptides derived from pathogens, and by distinguishing them from self-peptides. To ensure the latter, immature T cells (thymocytes) diffuse within the thymus gland, where they encounter an ensemble of self-peptides presented on (immobile) antigen presenting cells. Potentially autoimmune T cells are eliminated if the thymocyte binds sufficiently strongly with any such antigen presenting cell. We model thymic selection of T cells as a random walker diffusing in a field of immobile traps that intermittently turn "on” and "off”. The escape probability of potentially autoimmune T cells is equivalent to the survival probability of such a random walker. In this paper we describe the survival probability of a random walker on a d-dimensional cubic lattice with randomly placed immobile intermittent traps, and relate it to the result of a well-studied problem where traps are always "on”. Additionally, when switching between the trap states is slow, we find a peculiar caging effect for the survival probability. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011 Random walk nationallicence Immobile traps nationallicence Intermittent two-state traps nationallicence Immune system nationallicence Journal of Statistical Physics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 142/6(2011-04-01), 1277-1286 0022-4715 142:6<1277 2011 142 10955 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-011-0144-8 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10955-011-0144-8 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Košmrlj Andrej Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 02139, Cambridge, MA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Statistical Physics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 142/6(2011-04-01), 1277-1286 0022-4715 142:6<1277 2011 142 10955 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer