Pleiotropic Effects of the Nude Mutation

Mice with the nude mutation exhibited thymic dysgenesis, hairlessness, and abnormal development of gonads and salivary glands. While their immunologic and reproductive issues could be addressed with thymus grafts, these interventions did not restore hair growth. Experiments showed that skin from nude mice grafted onto normal mice did not grow hair, whereas normal skin grafted onto nude mice retained hair growth. This indicated that the hairlessness was not a secondary effect of thymic issues but rather due to a shared defect affecting both the thymus and skin.