| Abstract
| - Abstract. The thymoma-prone BUF/Mna rat is a useful model for human thymoma. Thymoma develops spontaneously in these rats at an incidence of nearly 100%. At pre-thymoma age, BUF/Mna rats have extremely large thymuses when compared with those of rats of the other strains, suggesting the presence of genes that regulate the thymus enlargement. We performed linkage study to identify the genetic loci associated with thymus enlargement in (WKY/NCrj × BUF/Mna) F1 × BUF/Mna backcross rats. Linkage study showed the significant associations between thymus size and markers on Chromosomes (Chrs) 1 and 13, suggesting the presence of two genes, Ten-1 and Ten-2, which regulate the thymus enlargement. Ten-1 was located between myosin light chain, muscle 2 (MYL2) and DIMgh11 loci on Chr 1, and Ten-2 was located between synaptotagmin II (SYT2) and D13N2 loci on Chr 13.
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