Study of Thymus and Thymocytes in Bolivian Preschool Children During Recovery from Sever Protein Energy Malnutrition

Impaired cellular immunity in malnourished children is well known but rarely recovery of immunity was assumed during nutritional rehabilitation. Nutritional Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (NAIDS) was directly or indirectly responsible for high morbi-mortality in preschool children. In the CRIN'(Centro de Reha- bilitaci611 Inmuno-Nutricional), 45 children aged 6 to 55 months, hospitalized with severe malnutrition, were studied during 9 weeks. Anthropometric measurements and echography of the thymic left lobule were carried out weekly and T cell subsets (CD3, CD 1 a) were measured monthly. Weight for height was 79% of NCHS (National Center for Health Statistic) median upon admission and still 90% at