Hello, Superhighway Interstitium!

A newfound organ, the interstitium, is seen here beneath the top layer of skin, but is also in tissue layers lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels, and muscles. The organ is a body-wide network of interconnected, fluid-filled compartments supported by a meshwork of strong, flexible proteins. Credit: Jill Gregory. Printed with permission from Mount Sinai Health System, licensed under CC-BY-ND.

It does matter how you look at things.

For instance, for decades our scientists have been slicing and dicing tissue specimens, drying them, sticking them on slides, and then studying them through a microscope.

Now, comes a breakthrough discovery: We have a massive organ, the interstitium. No one knew about it until now because of the previous way researchers looked at tissue samples.

NYU Langone Medical Center researchers said the discovery of the, “previously unknown feature of human anatomy has implications for the function of all organs, most tissues and the mechanisms of most major diseases”.

Now that we have, “eyes that see”, we know that there is much more going on in our bodies than we previously thought. These researchers have discovered our body's superhighway.

“The interstitium, is found beneath the top layer of skin, but is also in tissue layers lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels, and muscles. The organ is a body-wide network of interconnected, fluid-filled compartments.”

“The researchers say that no one saw these spaces before because of the medical field's dependence on the examination of fixed tissue on microscope slides, believed to offer the most accurate view of biological reality. Scientists prepare tissue this examination by treating it with chemicals, slicing it thinly, and dying it to highlight key features. The "fixing" process makes vivid details of cells and structures, but drains away any fluid. The current research team found that the removal of fluid as slides are made causes the connective protein meshwork surrounding once fluid-filled compartments to pancake, like the floors of a collapsed building.”

"This fixation artifact of collapse has made a fluid-filled tissue type throughout the body appear solid in biopsy slides for decades, and our results correct for this to expand the anatomy of most tissues," says co-senior author Neil Theise, MD, professor in the Department of Pathology at NYU Langone Health. "This finding has potential to drive dramatic advances in medicine, including the possibility that the direct sampling of interstitial fluid may become a powerful diagnostic tool."

Here's the whole story…

Newfound 'organ' had been missed by standard method for visualizing anatomy, NYU Langone Health, medicalxpress.com, 27 Mar 2018.

Aretha Franklin - Freeway Of Love - 1985