Thymic involution is the process of atrophy observed to take place in the thymus with age. The thymus is a small, but critical organ. Thymocytes produced in the bone marrow migrate to the thymus where they mature into T cells of the adaptive immune system. As active thymic tissue is replaced with fat, the supply of T cells falls to a fraction of youthful levels. This loss of replacement cells is an important contributing factor in the age-related decline of the adaptive immune system. T ce…
Dendritic Cells Migrate to the Thymus to Cause Slow Thymic Involution Over a Lifetime
Thymic involution is the process of atrophy observed to take place in the thymus with age. The thymus is a small, but critical organ. Thymocytes produced in the bone marrow migrate to the thymus where they mature into T cells of the adaptive immune system. As active thymic tissue is replaced with fat, the supply of T cells falls to a fraction of youthful levels. This loss of replacement cells is an important contributing factor in the age-related decline of the adaptive immune system. T ce…