Sex differences in the formation of germinal centres in the rat thymus

Abstract

Rats of inbred DA strain were given 20 intraperitoneal injections of typhoid-paratyphoid bacilli at 10 day intervals. Thymic lymph follicles with germinal centres were formed in females but not in males. However, orchidectomy permitted the formation of large numbers of thymic lymph follicles with germinal centres in males. The formation of lymph follicles with germinal centres in the thymus was not affected by ovariectomy. These results would appear to suggest an inhibitory role of androgens on the formation of thymic lymph follicles with germinal centres. In addition, large numbers of plasma cells, mast cells, and reticular cells, or macrophages with haemosiderin in their cytoplasm, appeared in the parenchma of the thymus in close association with the formation of thymic germinal centres.