Figure 1.

A dynamical model for T-cell progenitors in the thymus proposed to describe the data presented in [11]. At time zero, n cells enter the DN1pre compartment as a bolus δ(t); with a constant rate 1/τ (d⁻¹), DN1pre cells commit into DN1 cells (generation 0). DN1 cells populate G + 1 compartments: the generic compartment i, with , contains DN1 cells that have undergone i − 1 divisions as DN1 cells (G is a parameter representing the number of generations in DN1 cell population). DN1 cells can commit to become DN2 cells, which give risen to DN3 cells. DN3 cells can commit to become pDP cells. Each DN1, DN2, DN3 or pDP cell can commit (in green), die (in red) or proliferate (in blue).