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Thymus: Wikis





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Illu thymus.jpg
Gray's subject #274 1273
Artery derived from internal mammary artery, superior thyroid artery, and inferior thyroid artery
Nerve vagus
Lymph tracheobronchial, parasternal
Precursor third branchial pouch
MeSH Thymus+gland
Dorlands/Elsevier Thymus

The thymus is a specialized organ of the immune system. The only known function of the thymus is the production of T-lymphocytes (T cells), which are critical cells of the adaptive immune system. The thymus is composed of two identical lobes and is located anatomically in the anterior superior mediastinum, in front of the heart and behind the sternum.

Histologically, the thymus can be divided into a central medulla and a peripheral cortex which is surrounded by an outer capsule. The cortex and medulla play different roles in the development of T-cells. Cells in the thymus can be divided into thymic stromal cells and cells of hematopoietic origin (derived from bone marrow resident hematopoietic stem cells). Developing T-cells are referred to as thymocytes and are of hematopoietic origin. Stromal cells include thymic cortical epithelial cells, thymic medullary epithelial cells, and dendritic cells.





The thymus was known to the Ancient Greeks, and its name comes from the Greek word θυμός (thumos), meaning heart, soul, desire, life — possibly because of its location in the chest, near where emotions are subjectively felt; or else the name comes from the herb thyme (also in Greek θυμός), which became the name for a "warty excrescence", possibly due to its resemblance to a bunch of thyme.[1][2]


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.[4][5] Recently, advances in immunology have allowed the function of the thymus in T-cell maturation to be more fully understood.





During the late stages of the development of the thymic epithelium, hematopoietic bone-marrow precursors migrate into the thymus. Normal thymic development thereafter is dependant on the interaction between the thymic epithelium and the hematopoietic thymocytes.


The thymus continues to grow between birth and puberty and then begins to atrophy, a process directed by the high levels of circulating sex hormones. Proportional to thymic size, thymic activity (T-cell output) is most active before puberty. Upon atrophy, the size and activity are dramatically reduced, and the organ is primarily replaced with fat (a phenomenon known as "organ involution"). The atrophy is due to the increased circulating level of sex hormones, and chemical or physical castration of an adult results in the thymus increasing in size and activity.[7] Patients with the autoimmune disease Myasthenia gravis commonly (70%) are found to have thymic hyperplasia or malignancy.[8] The reason or order of these cirumstances has yet to be determined by medical scientists.

Age Mass
birth about 15 grams;
puberty about 35 grams
twenty-five years 25 grams
sixty years less than 15 grams
seventy years as low as 5 grams


anterior view of chest showing location and size of adult thymus

The thymus is of a pinkish-gray color, soft, and lobulated on its surfaces. At birth it is about 5 cm in length, 4 cm in breadth, and about 6 mm in thickness.[9] The organ enlarges during childhood, and atrophies at puberty. Unlike the liver, kidney and heart, for instance, the thymus is at its largest in children. The thymus reaches maximum weight (20 to 37 grams) by the time of puberty. The thymus of older people is scarcely distinguishable from surrounding fatty tissue. As one ages the thymus slowly shrinks, eventually degenerating into tiny islands of fatty tissue. By the age of 75 years, the thymus weighs only 6 grams. In children the thymus is grayish-pink in colour and in adults it is yellow.

The thymus will, if examined when its growth is most active, be found to consist of two lateral lobes placed in close contact along the middle line, situated partly in the thorax, partly in the neck, and extending from the fourth costal cartilage upward, as high as the lower border of the thyroid gland. It is covered by the sternum, and by the origins of the sternohyoidei and sternothyreoidei.[9] Below, it rests upon the pericardium, being separated from the aortic arch and great vessels by a layer of fascia. In the neck, it lies on the front and sides of the trachea, behind the sternohyoidei and sternothyreoidei. The two lobes differ slightly in size and may be united or separated.[9]


Minute structure of thymus.
Micrograph showing a thymic corpuscle (Hassall corpuscle), a characteristic histologic feature of the human thymus. H&E stain.

Each lateral lobe is composed of numerous lobules held together by delicate areolar tissue; the entire organ being enclosed in an investing capsule[10] of a similar but denser structure. The primary lobules vary in size from that of a pin's head to that of a small pea, and are made up of a number of small nodules or follicles.

The follicles are irregular in shape and are more or less fused together, especially toward the interior of the organ. Each follicle is from 1 to 2 mm in diameter and consists of a medullary and a cortical portion[11], and these differ in many essential particulars from each other.






The medulla is the location of the latter events in thymocyte development. Thymocytes that reach the medulla have already successfully undergone T cell receptor gene rearrangement and positive selection, and have been exposed to a limited degree of negative selection. The medulla is specialised to allow thymocytes to undergo additional rounds of negative selection to remove auto-reactive T-cells from the mature repertoire. The gene AIRE is expressed by the thymic medullary epithelium, and drives the transcription of organ-specific genes such as insulin to allow maturing thymocytes to be exposed to a more complex set of self-antigens than is present in the cortex.






In the two thymic lobes, hematopoietic precursors from the bone-marrow, referred to as thymocytes, 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[12]) results in severe immunodeficiency and a high susceptibility to infection.[13]

The stock of T-lymphocytes is built up in early life, so the function of the thymus is diminished in adults. It is largely degenerated in elderly adults and is barely identifiable, consisting mostly of fatty tissue, but it continues to function as an endocrine gland important in stimulating the immune system.[14] Involution of the thymus has been linked to loss of immune function in the elderly, susceptibility to infection and to cancer.

The ability of T-cells to recognize foreign antigens is mediated by the T cell receptor. The T cell receptor undergoes genetic rearrangement during thymocyte maturation, resulting in each T-cell bearing a unique T-cell receptor, specific to a limited set of peptide:MHC combinations. The random nature of the genetic rearrangement results in a requirement of central tolerance mechanisms to remove or inactivate those T cells which bear a T cell receptor with the ability to recognise self-peptides.

Phases of thymocyte maturation

The generation of T-cells expressing distinct T-cell receptors occurs within the thymus, and can be conceptually divided into three phases:

  2. Immature thymocytes each make distinct T-cell receptors by a process of gene rearrangement. This process is error-prone, and some thymocytes fail to make functional T-cell receptors, whereas other thymocytes make T-cell receptors that are autoreactive.[16]
  3. Immature thymocytes undergo a process of selection, based on the specificity of their T-cell receptors. This involves selection of T-cells that are functional (positive selection), and elimination of T-cells that are autoreactive (negative selection).
type: functional (positive selection) autoreactive (negative selection)
location: cortex medulla
Intrathymic T Cell Differentiation.JPG



Negative selection is not 100% complete. Some autoreactive T-cells escape thymic censorship, and are released into the circulation.


If these peripheral tolerance mechanisms also fail, autoimmunity may arise.


Disease Associations


As the thymus is the organ of T-cell development, any congenital defect in thymic genesis or a defect in thymocyte development can lead to a profound T cell primary immunodeficiency. Defects that affect both the T cell and B cell lymphocyte lineages result in Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome (SCID). Acquired T cell deficiencies can also affect thymocyte development in the thymus.

DiGeorge Syndrome

DiGeorge Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the deletion of a small section of chromosome 22. This results in a midline congenital defect including thymic aplasia, or congenital deficiency of a thymus. Patients may present with a profound immunodeficiency disease, due to the lack of T cells. No other immune cell lineages are affected by the congenital absence of the thymus. DiGeorge Syndrome is the most common congenital cause of thymic aplasia in humans. In mice, the nude mouse strain are congenitally thymic deficent. These mice are an important model of primary T cell deficiency.


Severe combined immunodeficiency syndromes (SCID) are group of rare congenital genetic diseases that result in combined T lymphocyte and B lymphocyte deficencies. These syndromes are cause by defective hematopoietic progenitor cells which are the precursors of both B- and T-cells. This results in a severe reduction in developing thymocytes in the thymus and consequently thymic atrophy. A number of genetic defects can cause SCID, including IL-7 receptor deficiency, common gamma chain deficiency, and Recombination activating gene deficiency.


The HIV virus causes an acquired T-cell immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) by specifically killing CD4+ T-cells. Whereas, the major effect of the virus is on mature peripheral T-cells, the HIV virus can also infect developing thymocytes in the thymus, most of which express CD4.

Autoimmune Disease

Autoimmune diseases are caused by a hyperactive immune system that instead of attacking foreign pathogens reacts against the host organism (self) causing disease. One of the primary functions of the thymus is to prevent autoimmunity through the process of central tolerance, immunologic tolerance to self antigens.


Autoimmune Polyendocrinopathy-Candidiasis-Ectodermal Dystrophy (APECED) is an extremely rare genetic autoimmune syndrome. However, this disease highlights the importance of the thymus in prevention of autoimmunity. This disease is caused by deficiency of the Autoimmune Regulator (AIRE) gene in the thymus. AIRE allows for the ectopic expression of tissue-specific proteins in the thymus medulla, such as proteins that would normally only be expressed in the eye or pancrease. This expression in the thymus, allows for the deletion of autoreactive thymocytes by exposing them to self-antigens during their development, a mechansism of central tolerance. Patients with APECED develop an autoimmune disease that affects multiple endocrine tissues.

Myasthenia gravis

Myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disease caused by antibodies that block acetylcholine receptors. Myasthenia gravis is often associated with thymic hypertrophy. Thymectomy may be necessary to treat the disease.


Two primary forms of tumours originate in the thymus.




Tumours originating from the thymocytes are called thymic lymphomas.[18] Lymphomas or leukemias of thymocyte origin are classified as Precursor T acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (T-ALL).

People with an enlarged thymus, particularly children, were treated with intense radiation in the years before 1950. There is an elevated incidence of thyroid cancer and leukemia in treated individuals.[19]


Thymectomy is the surgical removal of the thymus. The most common reason for thymectomy in the United States is to gain surgical access to the heart in surgeries to correct congenital heart defects that are preformed in the neonatal period. In neonates, but not older children or adults, the relative size of the thymus obstructs surgical access to the heart. Surprisingly, removal of the thymus does not result in a T cell immunodeficiency. This is because sufficient T cells are generated during fetal life prior to birth. These T cells are long-lived and can proliferate by homeostatic proliferation throughout the lifetime of the patient.

Other indications for thymectomy include the removal of thymomas and the treatment of myastenia gravis. Thymectomy is not indicated for the treatment of primary thymic lymphomas. However, a thymic biopsy may be necessary to make the pathologic diagnosis.

Second thymus

The thymus is also present in most vertebrates, with similar structure and function as the human thymus. Some animals have multiple secondary (smaller) thymi in the neck; this phenomenon has been reported for mice [20] and also occurs in 5 out of 6 human fetuses.[21] As in humans, the Guinea pig's thymus naturally atrophies as the animal reaches adulthood, but in the athymic hairless guinea pig (which arose from a spontaneous laboratory mutation) possessed no thymic tissue whatsoever, and the organ cavity is replaced with cystic spaces.



  1. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary
  2. ^ Liddell Scott Greek-English Lexicon
  3. ^ Nishino M, Ashiku SK, Kocher ON, Thurer RL, Boiselle PM, Hatabu H (2006). "The thymus: a comprehensive review". Radiographics 26 (2): 335–48. doi:10.1148/rg.262045213. PMID 16549602. 
  4. ^ Miller JF (2002). "The discovery of thymus function and of thymus-derived lymphocytes". Immunol. Rev. 185: 7–14. doi:10.1034/j.1600-065X.2002.18502.x. PMID 12190917. 
  5. ^ Miller JF (2004). "Events that led to the discovery of T-cell development and function--a personal recollection". Tissue Antigens 63 (6): 509–17. doi:10.1111/j.0001-2815.2004.00255.x. PMID 15140026. 
  6. ^ Swiss embryology (from UL, UB, and UF) qblood/lymphat03
  8. ^ Kumar, Parveen, Michael Clark (2002). Clinical Medicine 5th edn.. Saunders. pp. 1222. ISBN 0-702-02606-9. 
  9. ^ a b c Gray, H. (1918). ( "4c. The Thymus". Anatomy of the Human Body. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger. ( 
  10. ^ Histology at BU 07403loa
  11. ^ Histology at BU 07401loa
  12. ^ Hussain, I., P.H. Win and S. Guduri (February 2, 2006). "DiGeorge Syndrome". eMedicine. Retrieved 2008-09-29. 
  14. ^ "Thymus". Retrieved 2007-12-03. 
  18. ^ a b Huete-Garin, A.; S.S. Sagel (2005). "Chapter 6: "Mediastinum", Thymic Neoplasm". in J.K.T. Lee, S.S. Sagel, R.J. Stanley and J.P. Heiken. Computed Body Tomography with MRI Correlation. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. pp. 311–324. ISBN 0781745268. 
  21. ^ Surprise organ discovered in mice, Nature News, 2 March 2006

See Also

External links

Additional images


Up to date as of January 14, 2010

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

See also thymus


Thymus praecox

Proper noun


  1. (taxonomy) A taxonomic genus within the tribe Mentheae.


  • Thymus praecox


Up to date as of January 23, 2010

From Wikispecies

Thymus may mean:

Simple English

Redirecting to Thyme


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