If one had an infected thymus, does this mean that immune cells would be eliminated for attacking the infection, and thus the immune system be tuned to ignore the present infection?
I've never thought or heard of that, but theoretically yes?
However most of this happens before birth, and thymus infection is pretty unlikely at that point - the baby is protected by the mom's antibodies and is also physically sequestered. If the unborn baby has a thymus infection I would be more worried about what the mother has.
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This is fascinating.
If one had an infected thymus, does this mean that immune cells would be eliminated for attacking the infection, and thus the immune system be tuned to ignore the present infection?
I've never thought or heard of that, but theoretically yes?
However most of this happens before birth, and thymus infection is pretty unlikely at that point - the baby is protected by the mom's antibodies and is also physically sequestered. If the unborn baby has a thymus infection I would be more worried about what the mother has.