Human Thymic Involution and Aging in Humanized Mice.

ABSTRACT: Thymic involution is an important factor leading to the aging of the immune system. Most of what we know regarding thymic aging comes from mouse models, and the nature of the thymic aging process in humans remains largely unexplored due to the lack of a model system that permits longitudinal studies of human thymic involution. In this study, we sought to explore the potential to examine human thymic involution in humanized mice, constructed by transplantation of fetal human thymus and CD34⁺ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells into immunodeficient mice. In these humanized mice, the human thymic graft first underwent acute recoverable involution caused presumably by transplantation stress, followed by an age-related chronic form of involution. Although both the early recoverable a

SUBMITTER: Tong QY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7358581 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature