Neonatal Thymectomy Increases Spontaneous Autoimmune Thyroiditis

Abstract

Summary Neonatal thymectomy of Obese strain chickens significantly increased the severity of spontaneous autoimmune thyroiditis, assessed by histologic study at the end of 4 weeks. The effect is not due to surgical trauma to the thyroid gland. A balance between bursal function (which promotes the autoimmune disorder) and thymic function (which suppresses it) is thus apparent.