Dynamics of a class of immune networks. I. Global stability of idiotype interactions

This paper establishes the conditions under which a class of differential equations which appear in the study of immune systems (Varela et al., 1988a, In: Theoretical Immunology Part II. New Jersey: Addison Wesley), are globally stable. This is proved by adapting a Liapunov functional originally proposed by Cohen & Grossberg (1983, IEEE Transac SMC 13, 815–826) for competitive systems. The global stability thus obtained is valid on the fast time scale where only idiotypic interactions are relevant, thus excluding both lymphocyte proliferation processes and repertoire change via recruitment from immature bone marrow B cells.