Fig. 6.

Schematic diagram of the linear in silico activation pathway of CD8⁺ T cells. A naïve CD8⁺ T cell becomes pre-activated when it contacts an APC. The pre-activated T cell evolves to an activated cell when its IL-2•IL-2R complex exceeds a threshold. The activated T cell breaks contact with APC and enters cell cycle. At the end of an activated T cell’s division, the daughter cells can differentiate into effector phenotype if their T-bet level exceeds a threshold. Effector T cells keep proliferating leading to the population expansion. The apoptosis of activated and effector T cells involves the generation of cleaved Caspases (above a threshold), which are induced by Fas-FasL signaling