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thymus
(redirected from thymic)

    Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.07 sec.

thymus

Pyramid-shaped lymphoid organ (see lymphoid tissue) between the breastbone and the heart. Starting at puberty, it shrinks slowly. It has no lymphatic vessels draining into it and does not filter lymph; instead, stem cells in its outer cortex develop into different kinds of T cells (see lymphocytes). Some migrate to the inner medulla and enter the bloodstream; those that do not may be destroyed to prevent autoimmune reactions. This process is most active during infancy. If a newborn's thymus is removed, not enough T cells are produced, the spleen and lymph nodes have little tissue, and the immune system fails, causing a gradual, fatal wasting disease. Thymus removal in adults has little effect.

thymus
a glandular organ of vertebrates, consisting in man of two lobes situated below the thyroid. In early life it produces lymphocytes and is thought to influence certain immunological responses. It atrophies with age and is almost nonexistent in the adult


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The mass was excised uneventfully, and the final pathology revealed a normocellular parathyroid gland and thymic tissue.
A third branchial pouch cyst presenting as a lateral neck mass in an ... by Spiegel, Joseph R. / Ear, Nose and Throat Journal
2005) found blubber PCBs (but not DDT) to be significantly correlated with thymic atrophy and splenic depletion in 61 harbor porpoises stranded in the German North and Baltic seas.
The risk of infection from polychlorinated biphenyl exposure in the ... by Jepson, Paul D. / Environmental Health Perspectives
Studies from this site and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center cover areas such as: 1) evaluation of immune responses to HIV during acute infection, which may help with design of future HIV vaccines; 2) assessment of thymic function and T cell turnover during acute HIV infection, which has implications for future anti-HIV treatments; and 3) assessment of transmission and prevalence of HIV resistance among treatment-naive subjects.
The acute infection and early disease research program. (Government ... by Dehlinger, Marjorie / Research Initiative/Treatment Action!
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