Gireg Desmeulles, Vincent Rodin and Laurent Misery.
In virtuo model for the allergic urticaria: Preliminary results.
Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Elsevier, 125(6):A15, December 2005.
Abstract:
Nowadays, the Virtual Reality (VR) allows the simulation and the (in virtuo) experimentation of complex phenomena, to complete and sometimes to replace the in vivo or the in vitro investigations. VR is a predilection tool to study and to undersand the complex systems we model. We applied this alternative method to the study of a complex pathology: the allergic urticaria. We have created a model of virtual skin.
The VR methods differ from classical analytical methods for the simulation in biology. They are based on the autonomy of the entities that populate the virtual universes. This aspect allows the coexistence of data having very different natures. It also permits to different disciplines (biology, computer science, dermatology, mathematics ...) to collaborate on a same systemics study. Thus, we use multiagent systems, the ARéVi plateform and algorithms based on chaotic and asynchronous iterations.
In this framework, we have built a three-dimensional model of skin. The model represents a cube of 600 µm length. We can experiment the injection of antigen, in the virtual skin, the activation of the mast cells, the histamine release in the tissue, the association of the histamin with its receptors and the induced consequences. We can also do the experience of the antihistaminic injection in the system.
The obtained results are preliminary to the constitution of a wider biological model. We wish, for example, enrich our model by the presence of nervous fibers. The preliminary results obtained by the usage of the VR allow envisioning in virtuo experiments on skin allergy and its treatment.
[doi:10.1111/j.0022-202X.2005.23896.x] [Desmeulles05e.pdf]

---