TY - JOUR A2 - Rodrigues, Mauricio M. AU - de Meis, Juliana AU - Aurélio Farias-de-Oliveira, Désio AU - Nunes Panzenhagen, Pedro H. AU - Maran, Naiara AU - Villa-Verde, Déa Maria Serra AU - Morrot, Alexandre AU - Savino, Wilson PY - 2012 DA - 2012/02/01 TI - Thymus Atrophy and Double-Positive Escape Are Common Features in Infectious Diseases SP - 574020 VL - 2012 AB - The thymus is a primary lymphoid organ in which bone marrow-derived T-cell precursors undergo differentiation, leading to migration of positively selected thymocytes to the T-cell-dependent areas of secondary lymphoid organs. This organ can undergo atrophy, caused by several endogenous and exogenous factors such as ageing, hormone fluctuations, and infectious agents. This paper will focus on emerging data on the thymic atrophy caused by infectious agents. We present data on the dynamics of thymus lymphocytes during acute Trypanosoma cruzi infection, showing that the resulting thymus atrophy comprises the abnormal release of thymic-derived T cells and may have an impact on host immune response. SN - 2090-0023 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/574020 DO - 10.1155/2012/574020 JF - Journal of Parasitology Research PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -