ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an attempt at developing a theoretical framework for the study of complex regulatory systems, and at integrating the various processes known to regulate antibody production into a coherent ensemble that accounts for some main features of the humoral immune response. Antigen injections provoke switches among the regime states which might be related to the different modes of the immune response, and depend on how much and in what way antigen is administered, and on the previous antigenic history of the system. Besides the regime states, one may also deduce the possible temporal sequences of states upon antigen injection. At high antigen concentration, the system may again be suppressed and this could play a role for low responsiveness at high antigen doses. A formal analysis of the regulation of the humoral immune response has been developed which is based on a small number of well-established facts about lymphocyte interactions and some reasonable assumptions.
