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Main Authors: Gambino, Gaetana, Gargano, Francesco, Rizzo, Alessandra, Sciacca, Vincenzo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28147
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author Gambino, Gaetana
Gargano, Francesco
Rizzo, Alessandra
Sciacca, Vincenzo
author_facet Gambino, Gaetana
Gargano, Francesco
Rizzo, Alessandra
Sciacca, Vincenzo
contents We introduce a spatially extended mathematical model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy based on a damage-driven paradigm, in which immune recruitment is triggered by tissue injury. The model is formulated as a reaction--diffusion--chemotaxis system describing the interaction between healthy tissue, damaged fibers, immune cells and inflammatory signals. We establish the global well-posedness of the system and investigate the early-stage dynamics through linearization around the healthy equilibrium. Our analysis shows that diffusion does not induce Turing instabilities, so that spatial heterogeneity cannot arise from diffusion-driven mechanisms. Instead, disease progression occurs through invasion processes. We derive explicit conditions for the onset of invasion, interpreted as an effective damage reproduction threshold and characterize the minimal propagation speed of pathological fronts, showing that the dynamics is governed by a pulled-front mechanism. Numerical simulations support the analytical results and confirm the transition between decay and invasion. These results provide a mathematical framework for early-stage disease progression and indicate that spatial spreading arise from the expansion of localized damage rather than from intrinsic pattern-forming mechanisms.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_28147
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Damage-Driven Model for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: Early-Stage Dynamics and Invasion Thresholds
Gambino, Gaetana
Gargano, Francesco
Rizzo, Alessandra
Sciacca, Vincenzo
Mathematical Physics
Analysis of PDEs
We introduce a spatially extended mathematical model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy based on a damage-driven paradigm, in which immune recruitment is triggered by tissue injury. The model is formulated as a reaction--diffusion--chemotaxis system describing the interaction between healthy tissue, damaged fibers, immune cells and inflammatory signals. We establish the global well-posedness of the system and investigate the early-stage dynamics through linearization around the healthy equilibrium. Our analysis shows that diffusion does not induce Turing instabilities, so that spatial heterogeneity cannot arise from diffusion-driven mechanisms. Instead, disease progression occurs through invasion processes. We derive explicit conditions for the onset of invasion, interpreted as an effective damage reproduction threshold and characterize the minimal propagation speed of pathological fronts, showing that the dynamics is governed by a pulled-front mechanism. Numerical simulations support the analytical results and confirm the transition between decay and invasion. These results provide a mathematical framework for early-stage disease progression and indicate that spatial spreading arise from the expansion of localized damage rather than from intrinsic pattern-forming mechanisms.
title A Damage-Driven Model for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: Early-Stage Dynamics and Invasion Thresholds
topic Mathematical Physics
Analysis of PDEs
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28147