Elmore Susan A
Laboratory of Experimental Pathology, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, 111 Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
Toxicol Pathol. 2006;34(5):425-54. doi: 10.1080/01926230600964722.
Lymph nodes function as filters of tissues and tissue fluids and are sites of origin and production of lymphocytes for normal physiological functions. As part of this normal function, they react to both endogenous and exogenous substances with a variety of specific morphological and functional responses. Lesions can be both proliferative and nonproliferative, and can be treatment-related or not. The histological evaluation of lymph nodes is necessary in order to understand the immunotoxic effects of chemicals with the resulting data providing an important component of human risk assessment. It is the challenge of the toxicologic pathologist to interpret the pathology data within the complete clinical evaluation of the entire animal. Daily insults, ageing and toxins can alter the normal histology and primary function of lymph nodes. Therefore it is important to distinguish and differentiate lesions that occur naturally during normal development and ageing from those that are induced by xenobiotics. To achieve this goal, comparison with strain- age- and sex-matched controls is crucial.
淋巴结作为组织和组织液的过滤器，是淋巴细胞产生和生成的场所，对正常生理功能至关重要。作为这种正常功能的一部分，它们会对内源和外源物质产生各种特定的形态和功能反应。病变可以是增殖性的，也可以是非增殖性的，可能与治疗有关，也可能无关。对淋巴结进行组织学评估对于了解化学物质的免疫毒性作用至关重要，所得到的数据是人类风险评估的重要组成部分。毒理病理学家面临的挑战是在对整个动物的完整临床评估中解读病理数据。日常损伤、衰老和毒素会改变淋巴结的正常组织学和主要功能。因此，区分正常发育和衰老过程中自然发生的病变与外源化合物诱导的病变非常重要。为实现这一目标，与同品系、年龄和性别匹配的对照进行比较至关重要。
