Thymus

The thymus is a specialized primary lymphoid organ of the immune system.

Within the thymus, thymus cell lymphocytes or T cells mature.

T cells are critical to the adaptive immune system, where the body adapts specifically to foreign invaders.

The thymus is located in the upper front part of the chest, in the anterior superior mediastinum, behind the sternum, and in front of the heart.

It is made up of two lobes, each consisting of a central medulla and an outer cortex, surrounded by a capsule.

The thymus is made up of immature T cells called thymocytes, as well as lining cells called epithelial cells which help the thymocytes develop.

T cells that successfully develop react appropriately with MHC immune receptors of the body (called positive selection) and not against proteins of the body (called negative selection).

The thymus is largest and most active during the neonatal and pre-adolescent periods.

By the early teens, the thymus begins to decrease in size and activity and the tissue of the thymus is gradually replaced by fatty tissue.

Nevertheless, some T cell development continues throughout adult life.

Abnormalities of the thymus can result in a decreased number of T cells and autoimmune diseases such as autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 and myasthenia gravis.

These are often associated with cancer of the tissue of the thymus, called thymoma, or tissues arising from immature lymphocytes such as T cells, called lymphoma.

Removal of the thymus is called thymectomy.

Although the thymus has been identified as a part of the body since the time of the Ancient Greeks, it is only since the 1960s that the function of the thymus in the immune system has become more clear.