Pattern Formation in a Model of Acute Inflammation

We seek to understand patterns that form due to acute inflammation in the skin in the absence of specific pathogenic stimuli. By incorporating inhibition (represented by an anti-inflammatory cytokine) into a classical Keller–Segel chemotaxis model, we create a novel model that produces a variety of spatial patterns. We find that the dynamical instability in both homogeneous and nonhomogeneous steady states arises only when the inhibitor dynamics are sufficiently slow. We present simulation results that motivate the nonlinear analysis of the model and illustrate a variety of interesting dynamic two-dimensional spatial patterns that form, including isolated traveling pulses, rotating waves, and patterns that do not settle to a regular behavior.