Thymic aging in ICR female mice is suspended by prolonged hydrocortisone exposure.
Age-related decline of the thymus in ICR female mice was studied following long-term (three month) weekly exposure to hydrocortisone acetate. When examined one week after cortisone injections, the well-known thymic atrophy was observed. Five weeks after 12 hydrocortisone injections, the cortical volume fraction (Vc), cortical/medullary ratio (C/M), the number of thymocytes and CD4/CD8 profiles were in the range that characterizes younger mice, compared with PBS-injected mice, uninjected controls, or mice given a single hydrocortisone injection 5 weeks earlier. It seems as if thymic involution with age was suspended during the period of glucocorticoid exposure.
Bar-Dayan
Y
Y
Department of Cell Biology and Histology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Ramat-Aviv, Israel.
Aronson
M
M
Small
M
M
D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D007273:Injections, Intramuscular; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D013950:Thymus Gland / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*
C021650:hydrocortisone acetate; D006854:Hydrocortisone