Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how stuff Works, Hey, brain
Speaker 1: Stuff Loring vogel bomb here. A recent discovery may be
Speaker 1: seriously changing our understanding of human anatomy. Researchers, including two
Speaker 1: doctors at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, announced
Speaker 1: in an article published in Scientific Reports that they had
Speaker 1: found a mesh like network of tissue throughout our bodies,
Speaker 1: with cavities that allow fluid to move on this previously
Speaker 1: unknown highway. This web of tissue is found underneath the skin,
Speaker 1: surrounding blood vessels and lining the lungs, digestive organs, and
Speaker 1: urinary system. Previously thought to be simply dense connective tissue,
Speaker 1: the structure has now been identified as a fluid filled
Speaker 1: web of collagen, collagen being a supportive protein found in
Speaker 1: skin and other connective tissue, plus elastin connective tissue. It's
Speaker 1: being called a new organ by some of the researchers involved.
Speaker 1: This highway connects to the lymphatic system and it could
Speaker 1: be away cancer cells. Spread is a process that science
Speaker 1: has never fully understood the workings of, according to the
Speaker 1: senior author of the report, Neil Teasa, if researchers gain
Speaker 1: a better understanding of the spread of cancer, they might
Speaker 1: be able to interrupt it. Teasa is a liver pathologist
Speaker 1: at New York University School of Medicine. A press release
Speaker 1: from the university said the discovery could add to our
Speaker 1: understanding of all organs and most major diseases. So how
Speaker 1: has this organ never been identified before? Doctors and scientists
Speaker 1: had often looked at this connective tissue, but did so
Speaker 1: by placing slices of it on slides under microscopes. In
Speaker 1: the process, the tissue compressed and appeared solid, according to
Speaker 1: the researchers. But in ten patroc Cybnias and David L. Carlocke,
Speaker 1: clinical gastroenturologists at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center, we're
Speaker 1: using a new imaging technique to look at a patient's
Speaker 1: bio duct. We spoke with Rebecca G. Wells, a professor
Speaker 1: of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and one of
Speaker 1: the authors of the current report. She said us that
Speaker 1: this high tech endyscopy procedure involves inserting a tiny tube
Speaker 1: into a bio duct and using a fluorescent substance to
Speaker 1: illuminate the tissue. Allows you to look down into the
Speaker 1: wall of the duct. She said, the researchers saw a
Speaker 1: Lacey network like pattern, they didn't know what it was.
Speaker 1: They expected to see a solid barrier of collagen. Neil
Speaker 1: Tisa was called in. Wells noted he had no idea
Speaker 1: what they were seeing either, but she says they quite
Speaker 1: cleverly took biopsies in twelve succeeding surgeries and froze the
Speaker 1: specimens to retain the water in the tissues, which preserves
Speaker 1: the anatomy of the samples. The investigation led some to
Speaker 1: describe the structure as a new organ. Wells herself does
Speaker 1: not use the term, calling herself more conservative. However, the discovery,
Speaker 1: she said, does suggest an unusual connection between different parts
Speaker 1: of the body. It also may help explain the reason
Speaker 1: some alternative therapies, such as acupuncture and rollfing work. Rollfing
Speaker 1: is a type of deep tissue massage that practitioners say
Speaker 1: improves health by restructuring the muscles and fascia, the tissue
Speaker 1: that binds muscles together, and acupuncture has been shown to
Speaker 1: be effective in some cases, but no one knows why.
Speaker 1: According to Wells, a main function of the newly discovered
Speaker 1: network may be to serve as a shock absorber in
Speaker 1: the body. It's strong and elastic, and it's surrounds skin, blood, vessels,
Speaker 1: and intestines. Tissues subject to a lot of mechanical forces.
Speaker 1: A lot of movement occurs as the heart pumps blood,
Speaker 1: the lungs expand, and digestion occurs. Will says. The discovery
Speaker 1: might also lead to a better understanding of fibrosis, the
Speaker 1: toughening and scarring of connective tissue, often as a result
Speaker 1: of injury. The tissue network may also serve as a
Speaker 1: third space for fluid in the body. Doctors know that
Speaker 1: fluid collects in the spaces around cells, but these spaces
Speaker 1: are not enough to explain the swelling of tissues seen
Speaker 1: in some diseases. Well says. But despite the headlines trumpeting
Speaker 1: a new organ, some scientists have a more muted response.
Speaker 1: Edward Pettis, assistant for us ARE in the Department of
Speaker 1: Cell Biology at Emory University, said it's really cool, but
Speaker 1: pointed out that it's just one study. He said, it's
Speaker 1: a different way of looking at interstitial tissue, which may
Speaker 1: be different than we thought, but it's not like we
Speaker 1: have a complete understanding of it. No one's rewriting the textbook.
Speaker 1: Yet today's episode was written by Stell Simonton and produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clang. For more on this, and lots of
Speaker 1: other surprisingly connective topics, visit our home planet, how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com