Peculiarities of structural changes in thymus under damaging influence (literature review)

The article deals with one of the pressing issues of modern medical science: research and analysis of particular structural changes occurring simultaneously in the central organ of the immune (lymphoid) system and in the endocrine gland - thymus - under the influence of various damaging factors. A review of the national and foreign literature devoted to the problem is provided. In this publication, we try to analyze changes in the structure of thymus and their effect on the substratum of its pathology. The research results helped to allocate a two-phase reaction under exposure to damaging factors - “anabolic and catabolic” with typical morphological criteria. In the “anabolic” phase, significant structural changes on the organ, tissue, cellular, sub-cellular, and molecular levels of organization are revealed. Glandular structures, epithelial cells in particular, are the most vulnerable components of thymic microenvironment.