Question:medium
Nude mice are not resistant to xenografts due to the absence of which cells?
Nude mice are not resistant to xenografts due to the absence of which cells?
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Athymic nude mice lack mature T cells, so they cannot reject grafts.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- B cell
- T cell
- Both B and T cell
- None
Show Solution
The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Recall the defining lesion of the nude mouse - it is athymic. No thymus means no education ground for T lymphocytes, so mature T cells never develop. Step 2: Connect this to transplant biology. Rejecting an allograft or xenograft is fundamentally a T cell-mediated job, requiring CD4 and CD8 effectors. Step 3: Strip away those T cells and the rejection machinery collapses, allowing foreign and even human tumor tissue to engraft and grow - the basis for using these mice in cancer research. Step 4: Since B cells are present and the failure to reject grafts traces specifically to missing T lymphocytes, the answer is T cell. \[\boxed{\text{T cell}}\]
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