Disease relevance of Thymectomy

• We show that transgenic expression of the gastric H/K ATPase beta subunit specifically prevents the onset of autoimmune gastritis after neonatal thymectomy [1].
• Female (C57BL/6xA/J)F(1) mice undergoing thymectomy on day 3 after birth (d3tx) developed autoimmune ovarian disease (AOD) and autoimmune disease of the lacrimal gland [2].
• LAK cells plus RIL 2 could mediate marked reductions of established pulmonary metastases in mice rendered T cell deficient by adult thymectomy and lethal, total body irradiation followed by reconstitution with T cell-depleted bone marrow and spleen cells [3].
• Regulation of contact sensitivity to DNFB in the mouse: effects of adult thymectomy and thymic factor [4].
• Neonatal thymectomy of MRL/lpr mice led to marked reduction in the usual massive lymphadenopathy as well as significant reduction in antibodies to native DNA and prolonged survival [5].

Psychiatry related information on Thymectomy

• Poor response to anticholinergic medication and thymectomy necessitates low-dose daily maintenance prednisone for a normal life-style [6].

High impact information on Thymectomy

• These consist of T1 cells, which are short-lived, sessile cells sensitive to adult thymectomy (ATx), and T2 cells, which are long-lived, recirculating cells sensitive to anti-thymocyte serum (ATS) [7].
• Such proliferation is inhibited by the presence of both memory and naive CD4 T cells, is enhanced by 3-day thymectomy, is independent of IL-7, and requires a class II MHC-TCR interaction and a CD28-mediated signal [8].
• An intact MBP-primed thymus was required up to 10 d postimmunization, as thymectomy on days 1, 2, and 7 postimmunization abrogated the protective effect, whereas thymectomy on day 10 did not [9].
• Plasma androgen sulfate levels decreased immediately after thymectomy, but overall no significant differences were found between prethymectomy and post thymectomy levels [10].
• BACKGROUND & AIMS: A Th1 clone, II-6, established from an autoimmune gastritis BALB/c mouse that underwent thymectomy 3 days after birth, recognized a 15 mer peptide constructing the alpha subunit of H+, K(+)-adenosine triphosphatase as antigen and induced gastritis in nu/nu mice by adoptive transfer [11].

Chemical compound and disease context of Thymectomy

• BACKGROUND & AIMS: Murine autoimmune gastritis, induced by day-3 thymectomy, is characterized by cellular infiltrates and circulating autoantibodies to gastric hydrogen/potassium adenosine triphosphatase [12].
• Cellular immune response to acetylcholine receptor in myasthenia gravis: II. Thymectomy and corticosteroids [13].
• Induction of an organ-specific autoimmune disease, lymphocytic hypophysitis, in hamsters by recombinant rubella virus glycoprotein and prevention of disease by neonatal thymectomy [14].
• Here we have shown that autoimmune gastritis can also be induced in 6-8-week-old BALB/c mice by thymectomy combined with a single dose of cyclophosphamide (300 mg/kg) [15].
• Experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis in rats. Modification by thymectomy and prednisolone [16].

Biological context of Thymectomy

• These procedures, such as adult thymectomy, administration of low doses of cyclophosphamide, and in vivo treatment with anti-I-J antisera, significantly increased the magnitude and heterogeneity of the anti-Dnp antibody response to Dnp-GLphi and Dnp-GLA in strains of mice that possessed responder Ir genes [17].
• Neither diet nor thymectomy affected corticosterone levels or the estrus cycle of mature rats [18].
• The enhancing T cell is sensitive to ALS, not lost within 4 weeks of adult thymectomy, and bears the Ly-1+, 23- phenotype [19].
• Interacting quantitative trait loci control loss of peripheral tolerance and susceptibility to autoimmune ovarian dysgenesis after day 3 thymectomy in mice [20].
• Organ-specific autoimmunity induced by adult thymectomy and cyclophosphamide-induced lymphopenia [15].

Anatomical context of Thymectomy

• Support for a cell-mediated autoimmune pathogenesis of the diabetic syndrome is derived from the following experiments: administration of antiserum to rat lymphocytes prevents diabetes in susceptible animals and normalizes plasma glucose levels in 36% of diabetic rats; neonatal thymectomy almost completely prevents the occurrence of diabetes [21].
• These data are consistent with the notion that thymectomy and treatment with antilymphocyte serum results in enhanced tumor growth that is in part due to activation of histamine-dependent suppressor cells [22].
• In mice, SLE can be induced with polyclonal B-cell activators and thymectomy [23].
• Sera from 9 patients with a primary thymic tumour but without myasthenia gravis (MG) at the time of thymectomy were examined for skeletal muscle antibodies [24].
• These results seem to show that such combined therapy as applied in case 3 may be effective for some of the patients with pure red blood cell aplasia and thymoma; however, the effects of thymomectomy or thymectomy (or both) are still controversial for the treatment of pure red blood cell aplasia [25].

Associations of Thymectomy with chemical compounds

• Alterations of the host by adult thymectomy and immunosuppression with cyclophosphamide or prednisolone led to growth facilitation of myeloma [26].
• Thymectomy exerted a protective effect in rats fed low and normal fat diets, and this was not reversed by Thymosin Fraction V [18].
• These proliferating LN T cells were greatly reduced by thymectomy of adult MRL-lpr/lpr mice 1 wk before bromodeoxyuridine labeling, indicating that recent thymic emigrants or factors were required to sustain proliferation [27].
• Degree of weakness, duration of illness, use of prednisone, and history of thymectomy or thymoma did not affect the response to intravenous immunoglobulin [28].
• Neither the age of the patient, nor the histopathology of the excised thymus, nor the postoperative change in acetylcholine receptor antibody titer were found to have a significant influence on the response to thymectomy [29].

Gene context of Thymectomy

• We also found that the CCR5 antagonist met-RANTES failed to prevent the development of EAG induced by neonatal thymectomy [30].
• Upon stimulation with anti-CD3/CD28 monoclonal antibodies, CD4(+)CD25(+) cells responded more vigorously than CD4(+)CD25(-) cells in MG, irrespective of treatment with thymectomy, as well as in HCs [31].
• Upregulation of TGF-beta in MS patients with little disability and in MG after thymectomy implicates that TGF-beta has desirable effects in human diseases with autoimmune background [32].
• Resting splenic CD4 cells from KLH-primed mice that were depleted of naive cells by adult thymectomy and were exclusively of memory phenotype initially secreted high titers of IL-2 and low levels of IL-4 and IFN-gamma in response to Ag [33].
• The present results suggest that the proliferation of intermediate TCR cells occur at multiple sites; this may explain the effect of thymectomy, namely, the retarded onset of disease, in lpr mice [34].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Thymectomy

• Prophylactic thymectomy should be carried out during subtotal or total parathyroidectomy on MEN1 patients [35].
• Anti-CD4 treatment delayed rejection of Lewis rat pancreas xenografts with MST of 34.3 days, whereas anti-CD4, in combination with thymectomy, synergistically prolonged survival of pancreas xenograft (MST=70.4 days) [36].
• A group of 16 patients with severe generalized myasthenia gravis (MG) (five with thymoma) that was resistant to anticholinesterases, thymectomy, and corticosteroids were treated by plasmapheresis [37].
• Invasive thymoma was found at thymectomy; later, a solitary metastasis to the spleen required a splenectomy [38].
• Two patients with clinical and radiological evidence of limbic encephalitis associated with an invasive lymphoepithelial thymoma who improved after thymectomy and radiotherapy are reported [39].

References