Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T08:06:49.568Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The thymus: a barometer of malnutrition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Andrew M. Prentice
Affiliation:
MRC International Nutrition Group, Public Health Nutrition Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 49-51 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, United Kingdom
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Invited commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1999

References

Beach, RS, Gershwin, ME, Makishima, RK & Hurley, LS (1980) Impaired immunologic ontogeny in postnatal zinc deprivation. Journal of Nutrition 110, 805815.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beisel, WR (1992) History of nutritional immunology: introduction and overview. Journal of Nutrition 122, 591596.Google Scholar
Boyd, RL, Tucek, CL, Godfrey, DI, Izon, DJ, Wilson, TJ, Davidson, NJ, Bean, AG, Ladyman, HM, Ritter, MA & Hugo, P (1993) The thymic microenvironment. Immunology Today 14, 445459.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brearly, S, Gentle, TA, Baynham, MI, Roberts, KD, Abrams, LD & Thompson, RA (1987) Immunodeficiency following neonatal thymectomy in man. Journal of Immunology 124, 23562365.Google Scholar
Brunner, T & Mueller, C (1999) Is autoimmunity coming to a Fas(t) end?. Nature Medicine 5, 1920.Google Scholar
Clarke, AG & MacLennan, KA (1986) The many facets of thymic involution. Immunology Today 7, 204205.Google Scholar
Ferguson, AC, Lawlor, GJ, Neumann, CG, Oh, W & Steihm, ER (1974) Decreased rosette-forming lymphocytes in malnutrition and intrauterine growth retardation. Tropical Pediatrics 85, 717723.Google ScholarPubMed
Ferguson, AC (1978) Prolonged impairment of cellular immunity in children with intrauterine growth retardation. Journal of Pediatrics 93, 5256.Google Scholar
Godfrey, KM, Barker, DJP & Osmond, C (1994) Disproportionate fetal growth and raised IgE concentration in adult life. Clinical and Experimental Allergy 24, 641648.Google Scholar
Golden, MHN, Jackson, AA & Golden, BE (1977) Effect of zinc on thymus of recently malnourished children. Lancet ii, 10571059.Google Scholar
Hasselbalch, H, Jeppesen, DL, Engelmann, MDM, Michaelsen, KF & Nielsen, MB (1995) Decreased thymus size in formula-fed infants compared with breastfed infants. Acta Paediatrica 85, 10291032.Google Scholar
Jackson, CM (1925) The Effects of Inanition and Malnutrition upon Growth and Structure. Philadelphia, PA: Blakiston's Sons & Co.Google Scholar
Kourtis, AP, Ibegbu, C, Nahmias, AJ, Lee, FK, Clark, WS, Sawyer, MK & Nesheim, (1996) Early progression of disease in HIV-infected infants with thymus dysfunction. New England Journal of Medicine 335, 14311436.Google Scholar
Lord, GM, Matarese, G, Howard, JK, Baker, RJ, Bloom, SR & Lechler, RI (1998) Leptin modulates the T-cell immune response and reverses starvation-induced immunosuppression. Nature 394, 897901.Google Scholar
Mackall, CL, Fleischer, TA, Brown, MR, Andrich, MP, Chen, CC, Feuerstein, IM, Horowitz, ME, Magrath, IT, Shad, AT & Steinberg, SM (1995) Age, thymopoiesis, and CD4+ T-lymphocyte regeneration after intensive chemotherapy. New England Journal of Medicine 332, 143149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mackay, IR & Gershwin, ME (1997) The nature of autoimmune disease. Seminars in Liver Diseases 17, 311.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, HS & Brenner, BM (1995) Fewer nephrons at birth: a missing link in the etiology of essential hypertension?. American Journal of Kidney Diseases 26, 9198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Malpuech-Brugère, C, Nowacki, W, Gueux, E, Kuryszko, J, Rock, E, Rayssiguier, Y & Mazur, A (1999) Accelerated thymus involution in magnesium-deficient rats is related to enhanced apoptosis and sensitivity to oxidative stress. British Journal of Nutrition 81, 405411.Google Scholar
Moore, SE, Cole, TJ, Poskitt, EM, Sonko, BJ, Whitehead, RG, McGregor, IA & Prentice, AM (1997) Season of birth predicts mortality in rural Gambia. Nature 338, 434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, DI, Cooper, C, Fall, C, Prentice, L, Osmond, C, Barker, DJ & Rees Smith, B (1993) Fetal growth and autoimmune thyroid disease. Quarterly Journal of Medicine 86, 247253.Google Scholar
Prentice, AM, Cole, TJ, Moore, SE & Collinson, AC (1999) Programming the adult immune system. In Fetal Programming: Influence on Development and Disease in Later Life. Proceedings of the 36th RCOG Study Group, pp. 399413 [O'Brien, PMS, Wheeler, T and Barker, DJP, editors]. London: John Libbey & Son (In the Press).Google Scholar
Rensens, B, Iglesia Barreira, B, Bennis Taleb, N, Remacle, C & Hoet, JJ (1997) Organ's vascularisation in offspring of pregnant rats fed iso-caloric protein-restricted diets Diabetologia 40, 1571 Abstr.Google Scholar
Simon, J (1845) A Physiological Essay on the Thymus Gland. London: H Renshaw.Google Scholar
Takeoka, Y, Chen, S-Y, Boyd, RL, Tsuneyama, K, Taguchi, N, Morita, S, Yago, H, Suehiro, S, Ansari, AA, Shultz, LD & Gershwin, ME (1997) A comparative analysis of the murine thymic microenvironment in normal, autoimmune and immunodeficiency states. Developmental Immunology 5, 7989.Google Scholar
Vaux, DL & Strasser, A (1996) The molecular biology of apoptosis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 93, 22392244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed