Abstract
THERE is little doubt that the thymus plays some part in potentiating and maintaining some kinds of specific immunological competence. Although the nature of this role is obscure, thymectomy clearly affects different immunological capabilities differentially. All the well known effects of thymectomy are expressed as inhibitions of immunological capability1,2. We wish to describe the inverse situation. Thymectomy removes an inhibition present in half the chickens tested for graft versus host reactions (GVHR) to non-B antigen (B is the major histoincompatibility locus of chickens). The inhibition of the GVHR is proportional to the life span of the donor; long lived birds are weak GVHR donors and short lived birds are strong GVHR donors3. Thymectomy of the donor eliminates the inhibition of the GVHR and shortens the life span. After testing several explanations we attribute the normal inhibition to competition by environmental antigen, a competition which may be nullified by thymectomy.
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SHERIDAN, S., LAW, G. & RUTH, R. Stimulation of Graft versus Host Splenomegaly by Thymectomy of the Donor. Nature 221, 677–679 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/221677a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/221677a0
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