1984 Volume 26 Issue 8 Pages 1069-1077
The relationship between thymic abnormlities and development of murine lupus nephritis was studied in MRL/1 mice . In MRL/1 mice, thymic abnormalities, including plasma cell infiltration into the thymus, were obsered in 25% at the age of 1 month and in all mice after 2.5 month. The thymic abnormalities precede not only the infiltration of lymphoid cells into the kidney, but they also precede an increase in the titer of circulating immune complex (CIC), When MRL/1 mice were divided into two groups at each critical age which began showing evidence cf thymic abnormalities, the group with abnormal thymus showed marked pathological findings of kidney and a level of CIC than the group with normal thymus . In addition, the group with abnormal thymus demonstrated a lower responsiveness to mixed lymphocyte culture than that with normal thymus. Therefore, these results suggest that morphological and functional abnormalities of the thymus may be caused abnormalities of the immune system, elevation of CIC, and may be involved in the pathogenesis of murine lupus nephritis.
