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Role of Corticosteroids in the Pathogenesis of Post-traumatic Thymic Involution

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Immune Consequences of Trauma, Shock, and Sepsis

Abstract

Thymic involution is a constant finding during the general response of the organism to various kinds of trauma (Selye 1936). It has previously been shown that thymic involution in mice subjected to mechanical injury (Čolić and Dujić 1983) or thermal injury (Čolić and Dujić 1984) is a consequence of massive thymocyte pyknosis and destruction, mainly in the cortical zone of the thymus. Similar findings were demonstrated after exogenous administration of glucocorticoids (Cowan and Sörenson 1964), indicating that these hormones could be one of the main etiopathogenetic factors involved in post-traumatic thymic involution. Following this hypothesis we studied thymic changes in bilaterally adrenalectomized mice subjected to experimental thermal injury (TI).

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg

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Čolić, M., Dujić, A. (1989). Role of Corticosteroids in the Pathogenesis of Post-traumatic Thymic Involution. In: Faist, E., Ninnemann, J.L., Green, D.R. (eds) Immune Consequences of Trauma, Shock, and Sepsis. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73468-7_42

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-73468-7_42

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-73470-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-73468-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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