A group of scientists say they have discovered a new fluid-filled space inside human tissue that could be its largest organ.

Called interstitium, the space is found everywhere throughout the body, from under the skin to between the organs. It surrounds arteries, muscles, and the digestive and urinary tracts in a layer long thought to be dense connective tissue. One of interstitium’s main functions, scientists believe, is to absorb shock, protecting the moving parts of the body.

Key points:

• New organ found when endoscopists were looking for signs of cancer in bile duct
• Interstitium could be the largest organ in the human body
• Organ could explain how cancer cells are spread throughout the body

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-28/scientists-discover-new-human-organ-interstitium/9598140

Amazing!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/meet-your-interstitium-a-newfound-organ/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-23062-6

It is amazing, MV.

They should give it a better name, preferably one with a single syllable.

I’m pretty sure SciAm and Nature are related publications. Like SciAm is part of the Nature group or something.

And I think I read about this some months ago. Not sure where though.

Speedy said:

It is amazing, MV.

They should give it a better name, preferably one with a single syllable.

Definitely needs a better name. Interstitial is a widely used word in medical stuff. Means the spaces in between. Could be very confusing.

buffy said:

I’m pretty sure SciAm and Nature are related publications. Like SciAm is part of the Nature group or something.

And I think I read about this some months ago. Not sure where though.

Ditto

buffy said:

Speedy said:

It is amazing, MV.

They should give it a better name, preferably one with a single syllable.

Definitely needs a better name. Interstitial is a widely used word in medical stuff. Means the spaces in between. Could be very confusing.

It’s where the body’s interstitial fluids flow.

Rule 303 said:

buffy said:

I’m pretty sure SciAm and Nature are related publications. Like SciAm is part of the Nature group or something.

And I think I read about this some months ago. Not sure where though.

Ditto

Pre-publication somewhere or other? Or a conference paper?

For the Nature article:

Received: 18 May 2017
Accepted: 06 March 2018
Published online: 27 March 2018

Didn’t we have a thread about this about a year ago? In that thread is was pointed out that the tissue has been known for ages, the only difference is giving it the name of “organ”.

mollwollfumble said:

Didn’t we have a thread about this about a year ago? In that thread is was pointed out that the tissue has been known for ages, the only difference is giving it the name of “organ”.

Can’t find it. Perhaps you or buffy could. In any case, I find the notion interesting. Well more than interesting. Game-changing.

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22organ%22+site%3A+https%3A%2F%2Ftokyo3.org%2Fforums%2Fholiday%2F&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBAU701AU701&oq=%22organ%22+site%3A++https%3A%2F%2Ftokyo3.org%2Fforums%2Fholiday%2F&aqs=chrome..69i57.16425j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

mollwollfumble said:

Didn’t we have a thread about this about a year ago? In that thread is was pointed out that the tissue has been known for ages, the only difference is giving it the name of “organ”.

Can you remember a key word I could search by, please?

Michael V said:

mollwollfumble said:

Didn’t we have a thread about this about a year ago? In that thread is was pointed out that the tissue has been known for ages, the only difference is giving it the name of “organ”.

Can you remember a key word I could search by, please?

I’d try tissue and / or fluid filled space, or new organ

Oh, the previous new organ was the “mesentery” not the “interstitium”. My mistake. Both words mean “in the middle”.

Peak Warming Man said:

“The New Year heralded a new body part, as researchers in Ireland announced that humans have one more internal organ than previously thought. It’s called the mesentery, and it sits in the digestive system between which two other organs?”

Ooooohh.

The mesentery was heralded as a new human organ on 3 Jan 2017.

News reports have suggested that this interstitium could represent a widespread organ in the body, whose connections with the lymphatic system might be involved in cancer metastasis. While researchers not involved in the study agree that the interstitium likely plays diverse roles in the human body, they are reticent to call it a new organ.

“It is fair to say that histologists pathologists have long known that there is an interstitial space and that it contains fluid,” Anirban Maitra, a pathologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who did not participate in the work, writes in an email to The Scientist. “The claim that it is a hitherto undiscovered organ, and the largest one ever at that, seems a stretch,” he cautions.

“Most biologists would be reticent to put the moniker of an ‘organ’ on microscopic uneven spaces between tissues that contain fluid. By this definition, the abdominal cavity and pleural spaces should be discrete organs” too, says Maitra.

https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/52168/title/Is-the-Interstitium-Really-a-New-Organ-/

dv said:

News reports have suggested that this interstitium could represent a widespread organ in the body, whose connections with the lymphatic system might be involved in cancer metastasis. While researchers not involved in the study agree that the interstitium likely plays diverse roles in the human body, they are reticent to call it a new organ.

“It is fair to say that histologists pathologists have long known that there is an interstitial space and that it contains fluid,” Anirban Maitra, a pathologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who did not participate in the work, writes in an email to The Scientist. “The claim that it is a hitherto undiscovered organ, and the largest one ever at that, seems a stretch,” he cautions.

“Most biologists would be reticent to put the moniker of an ‘organ’ on microscopic uneven spaces between tissues that contain fluid. By this definition, the abdominal cavity and pleural spaces should be discrete organs” too, says Maitra.

https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/52168/title/Is-the-Interstitium-Really-a-New-Organ-/

That Anirban Maitra person is not gong to get anywhere with a sensible attitude like that.