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Restoration of Immunologic Reactivity of Thymectomized Mice by Calf Thymus Extracts¹

Department of Experimental Biology, Isaac Wolfson Building, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovoth, Israel

Various calf organ extracts were injected into newborn thymectomized mice, and into adult thymectomized and irradiated mice, of C57BL/6 and C3H/eb strains. Whereas mice receiving either calf muscle or calf kidney extracts manifested an impaired immunologic response, of the same magnitude as equivalent controls, animals injected with calf thymus extracts resembled intact normal mice in their immunologic behavior. The immunologic repair, produced by thymus extracts, appears therefore to be specific to this organ, and to involve a hormone-like mechanism. Evidence for the contribution of this calf thymus factor to the restoration of immune competence in spleen cells of thymectomized mice is presented. The precise mechanism of this apparent hormone-cell interaction is still unknown.

¹ This investigation was supported in part by USPHS Research Grant No. AM-08460.

Received 7/18/66. Accepted 9/ 1/66.