PubMed · 7088148
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P Matzinger, R Zamoyska. 1982-06-24. A beginner's guide to major histocompatibility complex function.. https://doi.org/10.1038/297628a0
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A quantitative model for the population distributions of the different types of conjugates formed between cytotoxic T lymphocytes and target cells has been developed. The comparison of the theoretical predictions with data of the literature reveals that the transit populations among the different types of conjugates depends on the lymphocyte-to-target ratio, R, and two constants, k and k1. These constants (where k greater than k1) govern, respectively, the transit populations among conjugates of the type LTi (LTn----LTn-1----...LT), and among LjT conjugates (LT----L2T----...----LmT). We have found that high ratios are necessary to obtain conjugates where multiple T lymphocytes are bound to one target cell, and that under these conditions the predominant conjugate, LjT, varies according to j = 1 + k1R. Conversely, for low values of R the predominant population is of the type LTi, where i also shows a linear dependence on R. Our model explains also why the conjugate LT is normally the predominant population under the experimental conditions reported in the literature. A discussion of the influence exerted by the population distributions of lymphocyte-target cell conjugates on the kinetic of the lytic process for these kinds of effector-target systems has also been made.
We propose a stochastic model to explain kinetic data on the delivery of lethal hits by cytotoxic T lymphocytes in multicellular conjugates. The comparison of our model with data of Zagury et al. suggests that cytotoxic T cells deliver lethal hits at random, and when conjugated to multiple target cels these cells attack undamaged target cells one at a time. The mean rate at which lethal hits are delivered per target cell is approximately the same for conjugates containing one or two target cells but slows substantially in conjugates containing three target cells. If our model is modified so that both previously hit and unhit target cells are susceptible to being lethally hit at the same rate, a very poor fit to Zagury et al's data is obtained. This leads us to conclude that previously hit cells are either not hit again or are hit at a substantially reduced rate.