Abstract
THE involvement of the thymus in muscular, neuromuscular and neurological disorders is well documented1–4. In spite of the extensive study made of the thymus in myasthenia gravis, which, as a neuromuscular disorder with clinical symptoms of muscular weakness, shares some similarities with muscular dystrophy, the state and function of the thymus in muscular dystrophy has been ignored. The poor health and susceptibility to infection of dystrophic mice have frequently been observed. These observations and the similarities between dystrophic wasting and that seen in mice thymectomised pre- or neonatally5, led us to the conclusion that an investigation into the status of the thymus in murine muscular dystrophy was warranted. We have found that the thymuses of dystrophic mice exhibit changes in the age-dependent variation in thymic weight, together with aberrations in cellular morphology indicative of altered secretory activity.
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DE KRETSER, T., LIVETT, B. Evidence of a thymic abnormality in murine muscular dystrophy. Nature 263, 682–684 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/263682a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/263682a0
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