Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff Loring vogel bomb here. A recent discovery may be seriously changing our understanding of human anatomy. Researchers, including two doctors at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, announced in an article published in Scientific Reports that they had found a mesh like network of tissue throughout our bodies, with cavities that allow fluid to move on this previously
unknown highway. This web of tissue is found underneath the skin, surrounding blood vessels and lining the lungs, digestive organs, and urinary system. Previously thought to be simply dense connective tissue, the structure has now been identified as a fluid filled web of collagen, collagen being a supportive protein found in skin and other connective tissue, plus elastin connective tissue. It's being called a new organ by some of the researchers involved.
This highway connects to the lymphatic system and it could be away cancer cells. Spread is a process that science has never fully understood the workings of, according to the senior author of the report, Neil Teasa, if researchers gain a better understanding of the spread of cancer, they might be able to interrupt it. Teasa is a liver pathologist at New York University School of Medicine. A press release from the university said the discovery could add to our
understanding of all organs and most major diseases. So how has this organ never been identified before? Doctors and scientists had often looked at this connective tissue, but did so by placing slices of it on slides under microscopes. In the process, the tissue compressed and appeared solid, according to
the researchers. But in ten patroc Cybnias and David L. Carlocke, clinical gastroenturologists at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, we're using a new imaging technique to look at a patient's bio duct. We spoke with Rebecca G. Wells, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the authors of the current report. She said us that this high tech endyscopy procedure involves inserting a tiny tube into a bio duct and using a fluorescent substance to
illuminate the tissue. Allows you to look down into the wall of the duct. She said, the researchers saw a Lacey network like pattern, they didn't know what it was. They expected to see a solid barrier of collagen. Neil Tisa was called in. Wells noted he had no idea what they were seeing either, but she says they quite cleverly took biopsies in twelve succeeding surgeries and froze the specimens to retain the water in the tissues, which preserves
the anatomy of the samples. The investigation led some to describe the structure as a new organ. Wells herself does not use the term, calling herself more conservative. However, the discovery, she said, does suggest an unusual connection between different parts of the body. It also may help explain the reason
some alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and rollfing work. Rollfing is a type of deep tissue massage that practitioners say improves health by restructuring the muscles and fascia, the tissue that binds muscles together, and acupuncture has been shown to be effective in some cases, but no one knows why. According to Wells, a main function of the newly discovered network may be to serve as a shock absorber in the body. It's strong and elastic, and it's surrounds skin, blood, vessels,
and intestines. Tissues subject to a lot of mechanical forces. A lot of movement occurs as the heart pumps blood, the lungs expand, and digestion occurs. Will says. The discovery might also lead to a better understanding of fibrosis, the toughening and scarring of connective tissue, often as a result of injury. The tissue network may also serve as a
third space for fluid in the body. Doctors know that fluid collects in the spaces around cells, but these spaces are not enough to explain the swelling of tissues seen in some diseases. Well says. But despite the headlines trumpeting a new organ, some scientists have a more muted response. Edward Pettis, assistant for us ARE in the Department of Cell Biology at Emory University, said it's really cool, but
pointed out that it's just one study. He said, it's a different way of looking at interstitial tissue, which may be different than we thought, but it's not like we have a complete understanding of it. No one's rewriting the textbook. Yet today's episode was written by Stell Simonton and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this, and lots of other surprisingly connective topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com