Publication Date:
2006-03-04
Description:
The thymus organ supports the development of T cells and is located in the thorax. Here, we report the existence of a second thymus in the mouse neck, which develops after birth and grows to the size of a small lymph node. The cervical thymus had a typical medulla-cortex structure, was found to support T cell development, and could correct T cell deficiency in athymic nude mice upon transplantation. The identification of a regular second thymus in the mouse may provide evolutionary links to thymus organogenesis in other vertebrates and suggests a need to reconsider the effect of thoracic thymectomy on de novo T cell production.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Terszowski, Grzegorz -- Muller, Susanna M -- Bleul, Conrad C -- Blum, Carmen -- Schirmbeck, Reinhold -- Reimann, Jorg -- Pasquier, Louis Du -- Amagai, Takashi -- Boehm, Thomas -- Rodewald, Hans-Reimer -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2006 Apr 14;312(5771):284-7. Epub 2006 Mar 2.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Immunology, University of Ulm, D-89081 Ulm, Germany.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16513945" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Animals, Newborn
;
Choristoma
;
Forkhead Transcription Factors/genetics/physiology
;
Hematopoietic Stem Cells/cytology
;
Hepatitis B Antibodies/biosynthesis
;
Hepatitis B Surface Antigens/immunology
;
Histocompatibility Antigens Class II
;
Immunocompetence
;
Lymphopoiesis
;
Mice
;
Mice, Inbred BALB C
;
Mice, Inbred C57BL
;
Mice, Nude
;
*Neck
;
Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell/analysis
;
Self Tolerance
;
T-Lymphocytes/*immunology
;
Thymectomy
;
Thymus Gland/anatomy & histology/growth & development/*immunology/transplantation
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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