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( Thymus)
In human anatomy, the thymus is an organ located in the upper anterior portion of the chest cavity just behind the sternum. Cells located in this organ and the cytokines they stimulate the production of T cells and are of central importance for their maturation. The thymus was known to the Ancient Greeks. Galen was the first to note that the size of the organ changed over the duration of a person's life.[1] Due to the large numbers of apoptotic lymphocytes, the thymus was originally dismissed as a "lymphocyte graveyard", without functional importance. The importance of the thymus in the immune system was discovered in 1961 by Jacques Miller, by surgically removing the thymus from three day old mice, and observing the subsequent deficiency in a lymphocyte population, subsequently named T cells after the organ of their origin.[2][3] Recently advances in immunology have allowed the function of the thymus in T cell maturation to be more fully elucidated. In the two thymic lobes, lymphocyte precursors from the bone-marrow become thymocytes, and subsequently mature into T cells. Once mature, T cells emigrate from the thymus and constitute the peripheral T cell repertoire responsible for directing many facets of the adaptive immune system. Loss of the thymus at an early age through genetic mutation (as in DiGeorge Syndrome[4]) or surgical removal results in severe immunodeficiency and a high susceptibility to infection.[5]
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Thymus Subcategories
Thymus Articles
Procerin: Hair Loss Products by Andrew Adler
Are you suffering from hair loss or started experiencing receding hair line; then this is the time to deal with the cause. Knowing the cause of the problem is half the battle won as by this you can actually start the proper treatment. If you are suff...
Male Hair Loss by Andrew Adler
You are young, energetic male in your late 20s and suddenly started experiencing hair loss, you are bound to be baffled. Male hair loss is something which is very common and usually occurs at the age of late 50s but now males in their late 30s and 40...
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