Relation of the Thymus to the Formation of Immunologically Reactive Cells
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
The thymus has been shown to influence immune responses in laboratory rodents and chickens. Neonatal thymectomy markedly reduces the immunological response in mice, rats, and rabbits to some but not all antigens (Miller, 1962; Good, Dalmasso, Martinez, Archer, Pierce, and Papermaster, 1962; Jankovic, Waksman, and Arneson, 1962; Law, 1966). In adult life, thymectomy has no immediate effect on immune responses but, at least in mice, if thymectomized animals are followed long enough, a delayed depression of immunological responsiveness may be demonstrated (Good, Dalmasso, Martinez, Archer, Pierce, and Papermaster, 1962; Metcalf, 1965b; Miller, 1965; Taylor, 1965). Immune deficiencies following thymectomy in adult life can be accelerated in their onset, and be made more severe, by combination of thymectomy with whole-body irradiation (Miller, Doak, and Cross, 1963; Globerson and Feldman, 1964).
The spleen and lymph nodes of thymectomized animals develop a characteristic deficit of small lymphocytes (Metcalf, 1960; Metcalf and Brumby, 1966).
