Gestational age when thymus is colonized by stem cells

Range 7 - 8 weeks
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Haynes BF, Markert ML, Sempowski GD, Patel DD, Hale LP. The role of the thymus in immune reconstitution in aging, bone marrow transplantation, and HIV-1 infection. Annu Rev Immunol. 2000 18: 529-60. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.immunol.18.1.529 p.529 bottom paragraphPubMed ID10837068
Primary Source Haynes BF, Heinly CS. 1995. Early human T cell development: analysis of the human thymus at the time of initial entry of hematopoietic stem cells into the fetal thymic microenvironment.J. Exp. Med.181: 1445–58PubMed ID7699329
Comments p.529 bottom paragraph:"The thymus is essential for the initial establishment of the peripheral T cell pool in animals and humans (refs 1–3). In humans, children born without a thymus (complete DiGeorge syndrome) lack functional peripheral T cells (ref 3). The normal human thymus develops early on in fetal development, and is colonized by stem cells at 7 to 8 weeks of gestational age (primary source)."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111615