Age-related morphological changes of Caprine thymus

Abstract EN

A total of thirty-one thymus samples collected from female goats with the age range from ten days after birth to thirty months were used for gross morphological studies.

The results show that the thymus consists of thoracic, cervical and cranial lobes, which are superficially lobulated.

The thoracic lobe considered as a single quadrilateral mass present in the dorsal part of the left of the pericardial mediastinum and connected to the cervical lobe by a cervicothoracic isthmus.

The cervical lobe divided into right and left portions.

In the caudal third of the neck, the right and left portion adhere together, forming a single caudal part called the body.

At group I and II, the thymus gland was well developed, and all lobes and isthmus of the thymus gland were found.

At Group III thymus gland highly decreased in size, and the cranial part of the right limb of the cervical lobe was wholly involuted.

At group IV and V, the right and left limbs of the cervical lobe and the isthmus were involuted entirely.

At group VI the cranial lobes are completely involuted, and the thymus gland consists of the remnant caudal cervical and thoracic lobe only.

At the age of 27- 30 months there was a thin remnant of the thymus gland in the cranial mediastinum.

The source of the arterial blood supply of the thymus gland was investigated.

The thoracic lobe received its blood supply from the brachiocephalic trunk and left the internal thoracic artery, while the cervicothoracic isthmus supplied by the right internal thoracic artery.

The cervical lobe supplied by the common carotid artery and caudal thyroid artery, the cranial lobe supplied by the external carotid artery.