Figure 3

Simulations of the computational model in healthy and autoimmune state. Plots show representative simulations of the antigen-specific activated-Teff (red) and Treg (blue) population in log scale over 5 years. By changing the parameters of the Teff-Treg loop, we were able to reproduce two dynamics:A)Healthy state in which the Teff and Treg populations fluctuate at low levels indicating that the system is not generating an immune response, nor immunopathology;B) Autoimmune dynamics due to a failure in the cross-regulation (Teff-Treg loop), provoking the expansion and contraction of activated Teff cells. C, D) Simulations of tissue damage: reversible damage (blue), irreversible damage (red) and total damage (black): C) In healthy configuration the functioning of the immune system (blue line) do not induce significant tissue damage (black line); D) in autoimmune configuration the peaks of activated Teff induce tissue dysfunction and damage (red line), leading to the relapsing dynamics (back line).