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According to researchers, the human body's largest organ has been hiding in plain sight:
The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research researcher Petros Constantinos Benias, MD, and collaborators have identified that layers of the body long thought to be dense, connective tissues are actually interconnected, fluid-filled compartments, categorizing this part of the body as an organ. This discovery, published today in Scientific Reports, could lead to better understanding and improved treatments for cancer and other inflammatory conditions.
For years we have known that more than half the fluid in the body is within cells, and approximately a seventh of the fluid is inside the heart, blood vessels, lymph nodes, and lymph vessels – the remaining fluid is "interstitial." The interstitium, or connective tissue, up to now, has been thought mostly to exist between cells defined historically as a "third space", but this does not account for the massive amount of fluid stored within the human body outside of the vascular system. Occasionally the concept that there is a larger interstitial space has been generally referred to, though its anatomic or histologic features have never been described. The Scientific Reports paper is the first to define the interstitium as an organ and as one of the largest in the body. The interstitium is a series of spaces, supported by a meshwork of strong and flexible connective tissue proteins found below the skin's surface, lining the digestive tract, lungs and urinary systems, and surrounding arteries, veins, and the fascia between muscles. In the digestive tract, for example, the entire submucosal space or layer of the stomach lining has been redefined by this work as a complex interstitium that communicates with the lymphatic system. This space moves fluid throughout the body and is the source of lymph, a fluid in the body that aids immune cells that generate inflammation. Researchers involved in this study believe this could explain why cancer that invades this interstitial space becomes much more likely to spread. The researchers also found that the cells in the interstitium change with age, which may contribute to the wrinkling of skin, the stiffening of limbs, and the progression of fibrotic, sclerotic and inflammatory diseases.
Techniques in processing tissue from surgery and biopsies failed to identify this space because it was artificially collapsed during the fixation process, or when tissue is prepared to view under a microscope. As a result, scientists often interpreted the appearance of the submucosal space and this interstitium as a dense network of collagen or protein found in connective tissue, when in fact it was quite the opposite.
Also at EurekAlert, Scientific American, National Geographic, and CNN.
Structure and Distribution of an Unrecognized Interstitium in Human Tissues (open, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-23062-6) (DX)
(Score: 2) by ewk on Wednesday March 28 2018, @01:42PM (8 children)
How much/long would she have suffered without the initial surgery 40 years ago?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 28 2018, @01:59PM (1 child)
I think the point is that the original surgery, if we had the same knowledge as today, could have been performed in a different manner than it was, avoiding the following 40 years of problems. He's not arguing that the original surgery shouldn't have happened.
(Score: 2) by ewk on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:09PM
But they did not, hence the question.
I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:02PM (4 children)
Maybe a couple of months until fully recovered from a good quality surgery.
It's not like a botched surgery or no surgery at all are the only alternatives possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by ewk on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:18PM (3 children)
I don't think the initial surgery could be considered botched (given the apparently recent insight regarding the interstitium).
So it is actually like a surgery (as good as it gets at that moment in time) or no surgery at all are the only alternatives possible.
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(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday March 28 2018, @02:56PM (2 children)
Is it better to 'botch' a surgery, in a way that conforms to the currently accepted practices, or to do nothing?
Surgeons have always had quite the odd relationship with Hippocrates.
And this is only 'new,' sort of, in an academic sense. In this particular area western academic science is only catching up to traditional doctors from China and other places who have long considered the connective tissues or sinew as one of the main organs of the body.
While it's possible the original surgery was better than nothing, it's also possible that non-surgical treatments might have provided better alternatives, had they been considered.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Wednesday March 28 2018, @05:29PM (1 child)
> ... have long considered the connective tissues or sinew as one of the main organs of the body.
Things is, this _isn't_ the connective tissues or sinew. Connective tissue has been know to western medicine for a long time, whether considered an "organ" or not (in fact I am under the care of a CTD - "connective tissue diseases" - specialist clinic).
What is new is the understanding (from new abilities to look at it in place) that this is a body-wide network of fluid conduits, and connective tissue. It's the fluid conduits that are actually the important bit, possibly the missing link in understanding how cancer and other stuff spreads, and certainly a new place to look to take samples to find what is going on.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday March 28 2018, @06:29PM
"this is a body-wide network of fluid conduits, and connective tissue"
You seem quite confused. It either is or it is. Having read it, it is.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday March 28 2018, @08:13PM
Original surgery was a C-section, hard to say - maybe a few extra hours of labor, maybe death of child mother or both - in the late 1940s it was probably just saving a few hours of labor most of the time.
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