Human biology itself still holds mysteries for science. A team of scientists has discovered a network of fluid-filled channels in the body, in what appears to be a new ‘human organ’: the interstitium.
It was already known that there was a space between cells, called the interstitial space, but new research has given it the category of organ.
This network of channels would have a protective function, but it would also allow cancer cells to be transported from one place to another in the body, as detailed in the research, published in the journal Scientific Reports .
Through a routine endoscope, the scientists happened to observe that the bile duct was surrounded by inexplicable strange patterns in its tissue , rather than a hard, dense wall, as they expected.
Additional research in other tissues of the body has yielded more data: they suggest that these patterns are actually channels, which would be everywhere in the body, filled with fluid. The team estimates that the organ contains about a fifth of the total volume of fluid in the human body.
How come it hasn’t been discovered before?
If we are indeed dealing with a new human organ, how is it that it has not been discovered before? The researchers believe that since standard approaches to processing and visualizing human tissue cause the channels to drain, the collagen fibers that give the network its structure collapse in on themselves. This would have made the channels look like a hard wall of dense protective tissue, rather than a kind of fluid-filled pocket.
“We think it works as a buffer,” say the scientists. In other words, this network has a protective function.
It would help spread cancer
But in addition to protecting organs, the network would also contribute to the spread of cancer , according to the scientists’ observations.
When the team analyzed samples taken from people with invasive cancers, they found evidence that cancer cells that had come out of their original tissues had been transported through these channels, which led them directly to the lymphatic system.
“We have before us a new window into the mechanism of tumor spread,” emphasize the researchers.
The next step is to see if analyzing the fluid in these newly discovered channels could lead to an earlier diagnosis of cancer. What’s more, scientists believe that the new organ could also be involved in other problems, such as edema, a rare liver disease and other inflammatory disorders.
