Have you ever seen something that wasn’t supposed to be where you saw it? This happened to Antoine Louveau while looking through his microscope!
Antoine was looking at thin membranes, the ones that protect the brain, but somehow he found a lymphatic vessel. The lymphatic system is like the circulatory system but rather than circulating blood this system carries lymph (Lymph is a clear liquid that ferries immune cells and rids the body of toxic waste.) Research done in two thousand and nine stated that as an undisputed anatomical fact that the brain is the only major organ that lacks a direct connection to the lymphatic system itself.
Now, this claim is being disputed If this is confirmed this discovery may have a huge implication on studying brain diseases like Alzheimer’s. Everything Antoine looked into said the tissue was not supposed to be there yet it was. This vessel hid in plain sight, tucked behind a major blood vessel. The results of his study were published in the journal Nature, with mixed reactions everything from excitement to caution.
Antoine was looking at thin membranes, the ones that protect the brain, but somehow he found a lymphatic vessel. The lymphatic system is like the circulatory system but rather than circulating blood this system carries lymph (Lymph is a clear liquid that ferries immune cells and rids the body of toxic waste.) Research done in two thousand and nine stated that as an undisputed anatomical fact that the brain is the only major organ that lacks a direct connection to the lymphatic system itself.
Now, this claim is being disputed If this is confirmed this discovery may have a huge implication on studying brain diseases like Alzheimer’s. Everything Antoine looked into said the tissue was not supposed to be there yet it was. This vessel hid in plain sight, tucked behind a major blood vessel. The results of his study were published in the journal Nature, with mixed reactions everything from excitement to caution.
Maiken Nedergaard, a neuroscientist for disease involving the brain and immune system, says that this gives the scientific world a new tool, and once we understand it we can use it to find new treatments for things. It is completely mind-blowing that they have found something in the brain they believed it was completely cut off from. Which way back, years ago they believed the brain was cut off from the immune system as well, and that’s far from true.
This new found vessel is a good place to look for things that may be going wrong in the brain, things that might cause Alzheimer’s or things similar to it, even multiple sclerosis. For now researchers are steadily at work dealing with two major follow-up questions in order to figure out how relevant and useful this finding is. Does this system definitely exist in humans and what is the potential role of these vessels in Alzheimer’s, MS, and meningitis?
If this discovery holds up, other scientists will be racing to replicate these results, and we could be looking at opening up tons of new exciting research avenues. The thought of a part of the lymphatic system being hidden in plain sight for so long will ensure that we no longer ignore these areas, we may be able to reveal more mysteries behind the brain and fight off some of its most terrible enemies.
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