The study, published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports, suggests that a network of dense connective tissue and fluid-filled compartments, called interstitium, is a full-bodied organ, ie a group of tissues with a unique structure that performs a specific task, such as Heart or the liver.
More than two-thirds of the human body is water, which is mostly contained in cells. Much of the rest, about 20 percent of the fluid in the body, is "interstitial," a Latin word that combines "inter" or "between" and "sistere" or "to place" - literally, "between the other." "
This fluid and the tissues connecting it are called interstitium (pronounced "inter-STISH-um"). They are found throughout the body, both directly under the skin and in the digestive, respiratory and urinary systems.
Whether or not the interstitium is actually an independent organ has yet to be investigated. In any case, his understanding means "a significant reassessment of the anatomy affecting every organ of the body," said Neil D. Theise, a professor of pathology at the New York University School of Medicine.
Understanding the interstitium could be particularly important in diagnosing and tracking the spread of cancer and other diseases that spread throughout the body. The interstitial fluid is the source of the lymph, which carries the white blood cells, the infectious agents of the body's immune system, to where they are needed.
A federal group of elite scientists reported in 2016 that focusing on the immune system could be the key to finding highly effective therapies for cancer. Theise said in an interview that the new research can be seen as parallel to this work; In addition, because the interstitium is located throughout the body, understanding could have an impact on an unpredictable range of systems from head to toe.
"You push the first domino down and if you look up to see where the dominoes fell, you find that they have spread everywhere," he said.
"It's just there"
The interstitium hid right under the nose of scientists all the time, but it cost an accident to find out what it really is.
"There are no pictures of it. There are no illustrations of the construct," Theise said. "It's just there."
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