text: what is the significance of splenic lymphoid hyperplasia in mice infected with various pathogens?   on the whole, the lymphoid hyperplasia (in any mammal, i believe) merely indicates that there is being a response to the infectious process, and the speen is choosing to be part of that.  remember that, at a simplistic level, the spleen is just a whopping huge lymph node.  it's a bit more complex than that, of course, but at the level of analysis needed for this question, that's plenty good enough, i think.