Researchers have found a new organ in the human body that has been "missed for decades."
The interstitium was long thought to be a flat, dense area of connective tissue around the lungs, gut, blood vessels and throughout the body. But researchers using an endoscopic technique looking at living tissue think differently.
Researchers define an organ as a group of tissues that perform a specialized function, like the lungs or brain.
The interstitium is found all over the body. It lines the heart, lungs, gut, bladder and all over the body. In the past, scientists have taking tissue samples, drained out all of the fluid and looked at these specimens under the microscope.
The interstitium looks flat, and dense surrounding the tissues. But when scientists looked into a bile duct in the liver, they found the interstitium to be multiple fluid-filled sacs that shrink and expand all the time in the body, serving as the shock absorbers.
Interstitial fluid also has another special function. The interstitial fluid, along with some other proteins, form lymph which is then drained out of the body through the lymphatic system.
Lymph has these lymphocytes which are white blood cells which go around the body fighting infection. Cancers can spread through the lymphatic system and go all over the body.
The interstitium could play a huge role in how infections are fought by the body and how cancer is spread as well. It could be a target for future cancer therapies.
