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Thymic Transplantation for Relief of Immunodeficiency

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Surgery of the Thymus

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Abstract

When MacLean et al. (1957) removed the thymus gland from adult rabbits without any effect on the immune system, they concluded that the organ did not play a significant role in the development of the immune response. Unfortunately, they did not appreciate what is well known today, i. e. that T-lymphocytes peripheralize and accomplish their function (at least in part) by long-lived cell populations. The maintenance of T-cell functions by long-lived mature populations has confounded many interpretations of mechanisms of reconstitution by various modalities, as we shall see later. It was some years before Miller (1961), Good et al. (1962), and Waksman et al. (1962) were able to pinpoint the role of the thymus. Extirpation experiments in newborn animals, or in thymectomized irradiated adults produced a defect of the T-cell system which was lethal and corrected by thymus transplantation. Results of studies in the newborn, when considered in light of those in adults, demonstrated that thymic dependence of the immune system could be shown if organ removal occurred prior to adequate development of a post-thymic population.

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Authors
  1. Richard Hong
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jean-Claude Givel

  2. Service de Chirurgie A, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Marco Merlini  & Michael Dusmet  & 

  3. Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TH, UK

    David B. Clarke MB FRCS

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Hong, R. (1990). Thymic Transplantation for Relief of Immunodeficiency. In: Givel, JC., Merlini, M., Clarke, D.B., Dusmet, M. (eds) Surgery of the Thymus. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71076-6_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71076-6_26

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-71078-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-71076-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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