Thymic output of T cell repertoire during the growing phases is vital, but it becomes unnecessary for repertoire maintenance during adulthood. This happens because the T cell regeneration in adulthood is almost entirely derived from homeostatic proliferation of the EXISTING T cell pool, which is sufficient to maintain a large compartment of naive CD4 T cells. Thymic T cell generation can add new naive T cells and enrich diversity, while homeostatic T cell proliferation can sustain the richness of the TCR repertoire already created. This means that the Thymic lymphocytes produced before thymectomy are long-lived naive T cells, which are maintained stable in quantity thanks to Homeostatic proliferation in adulthood.
submitted by โhayayah(1212)
By age 75, the thymus is little more than fatty tissue. Fortunately, the thymus produces all of your T cells by the time you reach puberty. They are long-lived and that's why you can lose your thymus without impairment of your immune system.