Cold as an agent to induce thymic involution in the golden hamster.
Thymic involution is normally a slow process, but can be accelerated by some pathological or experimental conditions. In this paper it is suggested that cold may be an agent to artificially induce thymic involution in the golden hamster. Animals kept at low temperature for 2 months exhibited a high degree of thymus atrophy, histologically characterized by an intense lymphocyte depletion with a concomitant loss of a clearly-distinguished cortico-medullary arrangement. In these animals, thymic white fat was largely replaced by brown adipose tissue. The role of low temperature as a direct or indirect agent to induce thymic involution is discussed.
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D000818:Animals; D003080:Cold Temperature; D006224:Cricetinae; D008297:Male; D008647:Mesocricetus; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology