Artículo Scientists have discovered a 'new human organ' they never knew existed before News

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Scientists have discovered a 'new human organ' they never knew existed before

The so-called interstitium could help us understand how cancer is spread

Anna Freeman

28 Marzo 2018 17:23

Scientists think they have discovered a new organ — possibly the human body’s largest — which was hiding in plain sight.

The interstitium is an interconnected system of tiny fluid-filled cavities throughout the entire body that acts as a ‘highway’ for our water supply, according to a new study’s co-author Dr. Neil Theise.

Scientists have not previously shown that there was a system for moving the body’s water because they .’didn’t know what they were looking at,’ Theise told LiveScience.com.

The interstitium could be considered the body’s largest organ, however, there will need to be greater consensus among the scientific community before the interstitium can be officially called an organ, Theise said.

Researchers previously thought the space between flesh and organs was made up of solid collagen — a protein — but Theise’s research reportedly shows that space is actually a scaffolding of collagen that’s filled with water.

It wasn’t until researchers used a new mode of viewing living tissue on the microscopic level called ‘probe-based confocal laser endomicroscopy’ that they were able to detect the interstitium.

This new discovery may explain how cancer cells are able to spread throughout the body — a process that has remained somewhat of a mystery for researchers, the study found.

Via New York Post.

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