Clinical significance Immunodeficiency As the thymus is where T cells develop, congenital problems with the development of the thymus can lead to immunodeficiency, whether because of a problem with the development of the thymus gland, or a problem specific to thymocyte development. Immunodeficiency can be profound. Loss of the thymus at an early age through genetic mutation (as in DiGeorge syndrome, CHARGE syndrome, or a very rare "nude" thymus causing absence of hair and the thymus) results in severe immunodeficiency and subsequent high susceptibility to infection by viruses, protozoa, and fungi. Nude mice with the very rare "nude" deficiency as a result of FOXN1 mutation are a strain of research mice as a model of T cell deficiency.
Clinical significance Immunodeficiency As the thymus is where T cells develop, congenital problems with the development of the thymus can lead to immunodeficiency, whether because of a problem with the development of the thymus gland, or a problem specific to thymocyte development. Immunodeficiency can be profound. Loss of the thymus at an early age through genetic mutation (as in DiGeorge syndrome, CHARGE syndrome, or a very rare "nude" thymus causing absence of hair and the thymus) results in severe immunodeficiency and subsequent high susceptibility to infection by viruses, protozoa and fungi. Nude mice with the very rare "nude" deficiency as a result of FOXN1 mutat,ion are a strain of research mice as a model of T cell deficiency.