Existence and stability of periodic solutions of an impulsive differential equation and application to CD8 T-cell differentiation (Q1750651)

In this paper, we note that unequal partitioning of the molecular content at cell division has been shown to be a source of heterogeneity in a cell population. It is proposed to model this phenomenon by means of a scalar, non-linear impulsive differential equation (IDE). It is disscussed how the degree of asymmetry of molecular partitioning can affect the process of cell differentiation and the phenotypical heterogeneity of a cell population. It is also shown that a moderate degree of asymmetry is necessary and sufficient to observe irreversible differentiation. In the paper, a general autonomous IDE with fixed times of impulse and a specific form of impulse function is considered. Most of the properties of the solutions of IDE are obtained under the hypothesis that the impulses occur periodically. Especially, it is shown how to investigate the existence of periodic solutions and their stability by studying the flow of an autonomous differential equation.