The pituitary dwarf mouse: a model for study of endocrine immunodeficiency disease.

Pituitary dwarf mutants of the Snell-Bagg and Ames mouse strains develop severe immunodeficiency of the thymus-dependent system which frequently leads to a fatal wasting syndrome. This immunodeficiency is a consequence of defective pituitary influences which will cause 1) an inadequate production of immunocompetent cells due to a central developmental defect primarily affecting the thymus and 2) the inability of immunocompetent cells to undergo a rapid and efficient antigen-induced proliferation and differentiation into antibody-forming cells. The relevance of the dwarf mouse model to a possible association between human immunodeficiency and endocrine disease is briefly discussed.