1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:06,800
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff Works, Hey, brain

2
00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:09,879
Speaker 1: Stuff Loring vogel bomb here. A recent discovery may be

3
00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:15,040
Speaker 1: seriously changing our understanding of human anatomy. Researchers, including two

4
00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:18,240
Speaker 1: doctors at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, announced

5
00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,080
Speaker 1: in an article published in Scientific Reports that they had

6
00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:24,160
Speaker 1: found a mesh like network of tissue throughout our bodies,

7
00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,560
Speaker 1: with cavities that allow fluid to move on this previously

8
00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:31,400
Speaker 1: unknown highway. This web of tissue is found underneath the skin,

9
00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:35,080
Speaker 1: surrounding blood vessels and lining the lungs, digestive organs, and

10
00:00:35,280 --> 00:00:39,879
Speaker 1: urinary system. Previously thought to be simply dense connective tissue,

11
00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:42,840
Speaker 1: the structure has now been identified as a fluid filled

12
00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:46,680
Speaker 1: web of collagen, collagen being a supportive protein found in

13
00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:51,000
Speaker 1: skin and other connective tissue, plus elastin connective tissue. It's

14
00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:53,880
Speaker 1: being called a new organ by some of the researchers involved.

15
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,880
Speaker 1: This highway connects to the lymphatic system and it could

16
00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:01,200
Speaker 1: be away cancer cells. Spread is a process that science

17
00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:04,319
Speaker 1: has never fully understood the workings of, according to the

18
00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,800
Speaker 1: senior author of the report, Neil Teasa, if researchers gain

19
00:01:07,880 --> 00:01:10,600
Speaker 1: a better understanding of the spread of cancer, they might

20
00:01:10,640 --> 00:01:14,440
Speaker 1: be able to interrupt it. Teasa is a liver pathologist

21
00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:17,600
Speaker 1: at New York University School of Medicine. A press release

22
00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,039
Speaker 1: from the university said the discovery could add to our

23
00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:25,000
Speaker 1: understanding of all organs and most major diseases. So how

24
00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,080
Speaker 1: has this organ never been identified before? Doctors and scientists

25
00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:31,600
Speaker 1: had often looked at this connective tissue, but did so

26
00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:35,319
Speaker 1: by placing slices of it on slides under microscopes. In

27
00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:38,440
Speaker 1: the process, the tissue compressed and appeared solid, according to

28
00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:43,680
Speaker 1: the researchers. But in ten patroc Cybnias and David L. Carlocke,

29
00:01:43,720 --> 00:01:47,920
Speaker 1: clinical gastroenturologists at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, we're

30
00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,680
Speaker 1: using a new imaging technique to look at a patient's

31
00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:54,560
Speaker 1: bio duct. We spoke with Rebecca G. Wells, a professor

32
00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,360
Speaker 1: of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and one of

33
00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,280
Speaker 1: the authors of the current report. She said us that

34
00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:04,320
Speaker 1: this high tech endyscopy procedure involves inserting a tiny tube

35
00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:07,440
Speaker 1: into a bio duct and using a fluorescent substance to

36
00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:10,240
Speaker 1: illuminate the tissue. Allows you to look down into the

37
00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,640
Speaker 1: wall of the duct. She said, the researchers saw a

38
00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,840
Speaker 1: Lacey network like pattern, they didn't know what it was.

39
00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:20,960
Speaker 1: They expected to see a solid barrier of collagen. Neil

40
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,400
Speaker 1: Tisa was called in. Wells noted he had no idea

41
00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:27,120
Speaker 1: what they were seeing either, but she says they quite

42
00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:31,040
Speaker 1: cleverly took biopsies in twelve succeeding surgeries and froze the

43
00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:34,160
Speaker 1: specimens to retain the water in the tissues, which preserves

44
00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:37,440
Speaker 1: the anatomy of the samples. The investigation led some to

45
00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:41,239
Speaker 1: describe the structure as a new organ. Wells herself does

46
00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:45,640
Speaker 1: not use the term, calling herself more conservative. However, the discovery,

47
00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:49,520
Speaker 1: she said, does suggest an unusual connection between different parts

48
00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:52,520
Speaker 1: of the body. It also may help explain the reason

49
00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:57,120
Speaker 1: some alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and rollfing work. Rollfing

50
00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 1: is a type of deep tissue massage that practitioners say

51
00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:04,080
Speaker 1: improves health by restructuring the muscles and fascia, the tissue

52
00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,440
Speaker 1: that binds muscles together, and acupuncture has been shown to

53
00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:10,640
Speaker 1: be effective in some cases, but no one knows why.

54
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:13,760
Speaker 1: According to Wells, a main function of the newly discovered

55
00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,320
Speaker 1: network may be to serve as a shock absorber in

56
00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:20,440
Speaker 1: the body. It's strong and elastic, and it's surrounds skin, blood, vessels,

57
00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:24,160
Speaker 1: and intestines. Tissues subject to a lot of mechanical forces.

58
00:03:24,200 --> 00:03:26,560
Speaker 1: A lot of movement occurs as the heart pumps blood,

59
00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:31,120
Speaker 1: the lungs expand, and digestion occurs. Will says. The discovery

60
00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:34,360
Speaker 1: might also lead to a better understanding of fibrosis, the

61
00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:37,840
Speaker 1: toughening and scarring of connective tissue, often as a result

62
00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,000
Speaker 1: of injury. The tissue network may also serve as a

63
00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:43,880
Speaker 1: third space for fluid in the body. Doctors know that

64
00:03:43,880 --> 00:03:46,920
Speaker 1: fluid collects in the spaces around cells, but these spaces

65
00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:49,480
Speaker 1: are not enough to explain the swelling of tissues seen

66
00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:53,920
Speaker 1: in some diseases. Well says. But despite the headlines trumpeting

67
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,560
Speaker 1: a new organ, some scientists have a more muted response.

68
00:03:58,480 --> 00:04:01,040
Speaker 1: Edward Pettis, assistant for us ARE in the Department of

69
00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:04,920
Speaker 1: Cell Biology at Emory University, said it's really cool, but

70
00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:08,200
Speaker 1: pointed out that it's just one study. He said, it's

71
00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:11,280
Speaker 1: a different way of looking at interstitial tissue, which may

72
00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:13,520
Speaker 1: be different than we thought, but it's not like we

73
00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,280
Speaker 1: have a complete understanding of it. No one's rewriting the textbook.

74
00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:25,479
Speaker 1: Yet today's episode was written by Stell Simonton and produced

75
00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:27,880
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clang. For more on this, and lots of

76
00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:31,640
Speaker 1: other surprisingly connective topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff

77
00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:43,760
Speaker 1: Works dot com