Jacques Francis Albert Pierre MillerBorn 2 Apr 1931.French-Australian physician who, in 1962, demonstrated the importance of the thymus gland in organizing the immunity of animals. land is prominent in young animals, but withers away in adults. If the thymus gland is removed at a sufficiently early stage, a young animal is unable to develop antibody resistance to foreign moelcules. Thus, the thymus, located high in the chest, is essential for the immune response. This is because the thymus makes T lymphocytes or T cells (T = thymus) from the stem cells which migrate into the organ from bone marrow. The thymus could be regarded as the university of the immune system - it is here that the T cells learn to recognise foreign antigens and to ignore the myriad "self" antigens present in the body's own tissues. |
