Mesentery
American researchers claim they have discovered a new organ of the human body. They have also baptized it – it is called Interstitium/mesentery and could be the largest organ of the human body. If scientists are going to figure out how it works, it could help prevent and treat some cancers, according to Science Alert.
The human body has been studying for thousands of years. Although we expected human anatomy should no longer have secrets, surprisingly, a team of researchers claims to have accidentally discovered an entirely new organ in the human body. The new structure could explain the source of lymph, the essential fluid for the functioning of our immune system. As such, this fluid-filled channel network or structure could play a significant role in maintaining our health as well as in spreading disease.
While we thought that our lungs, digestive tract and even our skin are surrounded by dense and dense interstitial tissue, it is actually filled with spaces filled with lymph fluid. The new organ is called the mesentery. Until now, physicians believed that the mesentery is not a separate organ, but a number of fragmented structures in the digestive system. The discovery was recently published in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. The study that demonstrated that the mesentery is actually a distinct organ was coordinated by Calvin Coffey, a researcher at the Limerick University Hospital in Ireland
Unbelievable discovery brings new opportunities for understanding how cancer works, trying to find healing methods.
According to The Independent, some layers that experts have considered connective tissue between muscles have been shown to be fluid-filled compartments. Scientists had knowledge of interstitial tissue, but these new discoveries put the tissue in a new light, giving it the quality of the organ. The quality of the organ gives it just the structure and its unitary function it has. Our skin is about 16% of the body mass and is now considered the largest organ.
That’s until now because if later studies confirm that the gap is indeed an organ, the estimate is that it has 20% of the body’s volume, which would make it much larger than the skin. The discovery was made using a technique called confocal laser endomicroscopy. For its veracity, live tissue samples from human bile ducts were collected from 13 patients undergoing pancreatic surgery. Thus, doctors now know that the mesentery is not a fragmented structure, but a simple, continuous one. New information is already handed over to medical students.
The function of the mesentery is not yet well known. This organ is actually the peritoneal replica that binds the small intestine to the abdominal wall.
Coffey has announced since 2012 that his studies suggest that the mesentery is a separate, distinct organ. However, it was necessary for the study to be extended over several years in order to gain more evidence in favour of this theory, and its research was only published at the end of last year. Studying the mesentery function can help doctors better understand certain digestive disorders and provide better treatments.
“It’s not a rigid tissue, it’s flexible. It’s fluid. That is, it looks like a sponge, like a buffer, is a flexible fluid-filled structure that can be compressed and then reverted to its original shape, “said study author Neil Theise, professor of pathology at the University of Medicine in New York.
“We know how cancer is, how it goes from the lymph nodes. We have not been able to study this enough. We are in the process of research. Can we identify the mechanisms that allow the cells to move, and then see how we can interfere with them? That’s how we could slow metastasis or even prevent it, “says Neil Theise.
