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Thymus   Listen
adjective
thymus  adj.  (Anat.) Of, pertaining to, or designating, the thymus gland.
Thymus gland, or Thymus body, a ductless gland in the throat, or in the neighboring region, of nearly all vertebrates. In man and other mammals it is the throat, or neck, sweetbread, which lies in the upper part of the thorax and lower part of the throat. It is largest in fetal and early life, and disappears or becomes rudimentary in the adult. The thymus gland functions as the site of maturation of T-lymphocytes (T-cells), which confer cell-mediated immunity on the host organism; thus, removal or malfunciton of the thymus can lead to absence of cell-mediated immunity, and a consequent loss of resistance to infection.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Thymus" Quotes from Famous Books



... series of organs in the body which has long puzzled physiologists,—organs of glandular aspect, but having no ducts,—the spleen, the thyroid and thymus bodies, and the suprarenal capsules. We call them vascular glands, and we believe that they elaborate colored and uncolored blood-cells; but just what changes they effect, and just how they effect them, it has proved a very difficult matter to determine. So of the noted glandules which ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)



Words linked to "Thymus" :   immune system, asterid dicot genus, ductless gland, mint family, neck, genus Thymus, cervix, thymus gland, endocrine gland, Labiatae, Thymus serpyllum, family Labiatae, endocrine, Lamiaceae, family Lamiaceae, Thymus vulgaris



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