Abstract

The thymus gland is known to be essential for the development and maturation of a properly functioning immune system.1 Converging evidence suggests that this maturational effect is mediated both by the microenvironment of the thymus2 and by remote effects of hormonal factors secreted from the thymic epithelial cells.3,4 Several groups of investigators described the isolation of fully or partially purified thymic factors, i.e., thymosin,5–7 thymic humoral factor (THF),8,9 serum thymic factor (FTS),10,11 thymopoietin12–14 and thymostimulin (TS or TP-1R).15,16 Other thymic factors were described,4,17 but were not thoroughly investigated. Two of the above-mentioned thymic hormonal preparations (thymosin fraction V and TS) contain several active peptides. It is agreed today that the thymus secretes more than one active hormone18 and that the demonstrable pleiotropic activities of such hormones3,4,19,20 have some common and overlapping characteristics in addition to some exclusive and perhaps antagonistic features.18,21

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