[Age-dependent thymus involution in experimental iodine deficiency]

The experiment on white Wistar rats provided morphometric and morphofunctional evidence on correlations between the thyroid and thymus in health and thyroid transformation in iodine deficiency. In chronic iodine deficiency the rate and volume of thymic physiological involution increase. Total shrinkage of the parenchyma of cortical and core substances of thymic lobules from juvenile animals reaches 25% in the experimental group vs 11% in the reference group. The absolute mass of the organ was stable due to increased volume of connective tissue of the interlobular septa and intralobular perivascular spaces. Iodine-dependent thyroid transformation brings about profound changes in correlations between tissue components and cellular subpopulations of the thymic lobule indicating disturbed mechanisms of immunological regulation in iodine deficiency.