International Journal for Computational Biology (IJCB) Vol.4, No.1, April 2015, pp. 13~20 ISSN: 2278-8115  13 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcb.in Three-Dimensional Cellular Automaton for Modeling the Hepatitis B Virus Infection M. Khabouze 1,* , K. Hattaf 1, 2 , N. Yousfi 1 1 Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Sciences Ben M’Sik, Hassan II University, P.O. Box 7955, 20700 Casablanca, Morocco. 2 Centre Régional des Metiers de l’Education (CRMEF), Derb Ghalef, 20340 Casablanca, Morocco Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Oct 15 nd , 2014 Revised Nov 18 th , 2014 Accepted Dec 25 th , 2014 Hepatitis B is considered as the most common hepatic in the world and may lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. It is caused by the hepatitis B virus, which attacks and can damage the liver. In this paper we investigate a new mathematical model to study the dynamic process of HBV infection on the liver. This model is based on a three dimensional cellular automaton, which is composed of four state variables. The model takes into account the heterogeneous feature and the spatial localization of the population studied. Furthemore, since the virus doesn’t remain only on the liver surface but penetrates into the organ, our model describes better the behavior of interactions between cells and hepatitis B virus in the liver than the previous works found in the literature, which have used only two cellular automata in their models. Keyword: Modeling Cellular Automata Three Dimensional Hepatits B Copyright © 2015 International Journal for Computational Biology, http:// www.ijcb.in, All rights reserved. Corresponding Author: M. Khabouze, Department of Mathematics Computer Science, Faculty of sciences Ben M’Sik, University Hassan II, P.O. Box 7955, 20700 Casablanca, Morocco Email:khabouzemostafa@gmail.com How to Cite: Khabouze Mostafa et al. Three-Dimensional Cellular Automaton for Modeling the Hepatitis B Virus Infection. IJCB. 2015; Volume 4 (Issue 1): Page 13-20. 1. INTRODUCTION Currently, hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is considered as a major global health problem because it is a potentially life-threatening viral infection that can cause illness and even death. It can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer. From the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 240 million people have chronic (long-term) liver infections, and about 600.000 people die every year due to the acute or chronic consequences of hepatitis B [1]. The most infected infants and children develop chronic. The hepatitis B is transmitted through blood, unprotected sex, sharing or reuse of contaminated needles, and vertically from mother to her newborn during childbirth. Therefore, many mathematical models have been developed in order to understand the dynamics of HBV infection and help the responsible for public health to make the right decisions. The most of these models are brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by International Journal for Computational Biology (IJCB)