It is a lymphoid organ located in the anterosuperior part of the mediastinum, which reaches its maximum weight during puberty and subsequently undergoes involution. It is essential at the beginning of human life in the development of immunological functions, it consists of two lobes and is located in the mediastinum behind the sternum, it has a layer of connective tissue that surrounds it and keeps it attached to the two lobes.
Structurally, it is fully developed in the third month of gestation, with an average weight of 15 grams and continues to grow until puberty, where it is its full growth range, weighing about 40 grams, then at adulthood it stops growing regressing and then progressively atrophies., producing the replacement of thymic tissue with adipose tissue and areolar connective tissue, reaching in adulthood about 15 grams replaced almost entirely by adipose tissue.
It clearly influences the development and maturation of the lymphatic system and the early immune defense response of the organism, as in the development of the sexual glands and the growth of the individual, and secretes thymosin, thymine and tiniopoietin. Its main function is the production of T lymphocytes, which are formed in the cortex of the thymus under the reticular cells, making a process that lymphocytes do when they recognize the cells of the body.
If they are not recognized, they are discarded and eliminated by macrophages, they travel through the bloodstream until reaching the lymph nodes, spleen, tonsils and peyer's patches, among the diseases related to the thymus due to its incorrect maturation is insulin-dependent diabetes Since the T lymphocytes do not recognize the beta cells of the pancreas, destroying them and systematic lupus erythematosus, which by destroying the cells, decompensates the organs of the human body, causing death. Its importance was discovered in 1961 when Jacques MillerHe extracted it by means of a surgery that was applied to a mouse, this being the result of a deficiency in the animal's immune system. The thymus is pinkish-red gray, ductile and lobed on the surface.
