Hi everyone,
Here is an article about a new organ...Interstitium...that exists all around our tissues and could be playing a vital role in our health.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/27/health/new-organ-interstitium-study/index.html**************
Researchers have detailed the structure and distribution of spaces in your body that they say represent a newfound human organ, and this "organ" just might be your body's biggest ....
It's the part of the body known as the interstitium, a name for widespread, fluid-filled spaces within and between tissues all over your body, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports on Tuesday.
Doctors and scientists have known about interstitial tissue and interstitial fluid, but the study provides fresh insights into a previously unrecognized feature of human anatomy -- and the researchers are raising the idea of calling the interstitium an "organ."
Additionally, "I think it's bigger than the skin," he said. The skin, comprising roughly 16% of your body mass, is thought to be your largest organ. As for the interstitium, "my estimate is that 20% of the volume of the body is this, which is equivalent to about 10 liters in a young adult."
Traditionally, when such tissue samples are examined under a microscope, the tissues are dehydrated and look like dense layers, Theise said. So the interstitium could have gone previously unnoticed because it was collapsed due to dehydration.
"Now, it's clear that by looking in the living tissue at the microscopic level with this new confocal laser endomicroscopy ... that space is fully expanded and filled with fluid," he said. "Once you see it, you can't unsee it."
"It would be analogous to discovering blood vessels for the first time, in that they are in every organ but they aren't an organ themselves," Nathanson said.
"In my opinion, this has the potential to change our understanding of the human body because this 'pre-lymphatic region,' as the authors refer to it, may undergo changes in certain diseases states such as certain types of cancer," he said. "So this now puts us in a position to figure out whether this is an effect or else perhaps part of the cause of such diseases."
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Cheers.
Sriram
