Scientists have discovered never-before-seen vessels in the brain

Scientists in the US have discovered a new series of lymphatic vessels in the body that link the brain to the immune system – a connection researchers had previously thought didn’t exist.

The discovery could not only prompt a rewrite of the textbooks, it might also lead to a new understanding of how our immune system influences our brain and our behaviour.

Postpocelipse said:

Scientists have discovered never-before-seen vessels in the brain

Scientists in the US have discovered a new series of lymphatic vessels in the body that link the brain to the immune system – a connection researchers had previously thought didn’t exist.

The discovery could not only prompt a rewrite of the textbooks, it might also lead to a new understanding of how our immune system influences our brain and our behaviour.

To figure this out, the researchers took entire mouse meninges and put them on a single slide – rather than slicing them up, which is how they’re normally studied.

When they studied them as a whole under the microscope, the team noticed that there were immune cells spread across the sample in vessel-like patterns, and further testing revealed that these were indeed lymphatic vessels

OK.