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Using immunohistochemical and electron microscopic methods the presence of serotonin and prostaglandin F2 containing granules in some epithelial cells of rat thymus has been shown. The modulatory role of these hormones in the thymic immunocompetent cells production is discussed.

A long-term (for 3 hours) hypoxic hypoxia was accompanied in rats by wave changes of the brain tissue Na++K+-ATPase activity. This activity decreased after a 15-minute exposure; it increased after 2 hours and fell again after a 3-hour hypoxia (decompensation period). The membrane transport enzymes of erythrocytes proved to be more resistant to hypoxia than the brain cell enzymes.

The effects were studied of the degree of immunodeficiency produced by thymectomy of one-month-old rats on the course of experimental tuberculosis induced 3, 6 and 9 months after thymectomy. Subject to study was also the effect of immunodeficiency correction with thymalin on the tuberculous process. It was established that the lungs of thymectomized rats infected 9 months after the thymectomy were damaged more severely as compared with control or thymalin-treated animals. In thymectomized rats treated with thymalin, the absolute content of medium-sized and big lymphocytes in peripheral blood was found to be lower, the content of small lymphocytes being unchanged throughout all observation periods. The time course of migration activity (spontaneous and in response to PPD) in rats treated with thymalin corresponded with the time course in controls in contrast to thymectomized rats which did not receive the treatment. The results indicate that tuberculosis severity depends on the degree of immunodeficiency and that the functional properties of immunocompetent cells may be corrected with thymalin.