The lecture is based primarily on the finding A that a strain of mice, NZB, which spontaneously shows 3 classical manifestations of autoimmune disease, Coombs positive hemolytic anemia, a high incidence of membranous glomerulonephritis, and the frequent presence of antinuclear factor in the serum, shows with equal regularity the development of germinal centers and associated areas of lymphocytic accumulation in the thymus.
In human pathology, germinal centers in the thymic medulla are known to occur in a majority of cases of myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disease. Very similar structures may be found in the thyroid, particularly when biopsies are made