Neonatal thymectomy affects follicle populations before the onset of autoimmune oophoritis in B6A mice.

Using a variation on a standard follicle classification technique, 5 classes of follicles were quantified in serial sections of ovaries from intact mice and mice thymectomized on Day 3 at 5-day intervals from 5 to 40 days of age. Sera from these animals and from animals 60 days of age were analysed for the presence of anti-oocyte antibodies. Ovaries from intact animals 10 to 40 days of age were examined for the presence of antigen(s) using anti-oocyte antibody-positive sera from all ages of mice. There was a dramatic decrease in the primordial follicle population at 10 days of age in thymectomized mice and that population remained significantly lower until 40 days of age. The growing follicle population was also significantly lower at 20 days of age in thymectomized mice and remained lower through 40 days of age. Anti-oocyte antibodies were not detectable until 30 days of age and at that age reacted with oocytes from all follicle types including primordial. Ovarian antigens were present in similar patterns in ovaries from mice at all ages tested. We conclude that thymectomy has an earlier influence on the ovary than previously thought and this influence does not appear to involve the immune activity associated with autoimmune ovarian dysgenesis. This suggests that the effect of thymectomy on the ovary may be biphasic: (1) an early effect, possibly involving a disruption in the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian-thymic axis, that influences the primordial and growing follicle populations before 20 days of age; and (2) a later effect involving an immune imbalance first evident by 25-30 days of age that ultimately results in the destruction of the ovary.