ashipwithoutaname:

shoresoftheshadowlands:

botanyshitposts:

botanyshitposts:

so uhhhhhh i know this is a plant blog but realtalk lads im a little freaked out by that wild ass new organ discovered in our bodies according to a paper published literally yesterday am i right my lads, my bois, lmao hhaha

(as of 3/28/2019, paper was published in the reputable international research journal “Nature” on 3/27/2018, publication here, study was started in 2013) ok so like uhhh this is my rough translation of the paper they published using my current level of biological knowledge, if anyone else has a more in depth understanding with human anatomy things and would like to add on with anything i might have missed feel free to add but this is my takeaway: 

-scientists were looking at some stuff in the inside of a bile duct they were studying in a live patient (this will be important later) using a laser that lets them see the cells in real time. they injected some stuff into the duct and saw the spaces inbetween the cells fill up with fluid in strange, tube-like structures that didn’t correspond with what they expected to be there, so they sectioned and froze them to study them closer; they realized that upon closer inspection, the fluid-filled places were VERY small collagen tubes forming a complex matrix of bundles surrounded by a weird cell covering that seemed to connect them to one another. they called this the Interstitium. 

-they sectioned some more places where squeezy things might happen, like the inner linings of the bladder, lungs, lymph nodes, and the soft tissue enclosing our muscles, filled them with the same indicator, and hyper froze them like they did to the first sample and found the same weird matrix of fluid-filled tubing:

they concluded from what they found from this that: 

1. our previous thought of the space inbetween the cells in these parts of the body, which we thought were just kinda like, there or whatever doing nothing (a series of spaces that were already called the Interstitium that were largely ignored), are actually full of complex tubing running through a ton of very important parts of your body

2. when the structures they’re chilling around (like your bladder and bowel) contract, the fluid moves around all weird

3. the reason this wasn’t discovered before is because when the tubes are squished too hard- like when scientists are cutting into them- they have a tendency to collapse really easily, especially when being treated with chemicals for microscope use, giving the impression of the kind of tissues that we’ve traditionally seen in specimens and thought of being in these sensitive areas (closely compact and dense cell mats). it turns out that in living people, these tubes run between the cells carrying fluid; the scientists were able to see this initially in live patients using the above mentioned laser technology, and then took live biopsies by quickly freezing the cells in place before removal to prevent their collapse.

4. yes, these can move cancer cells around, which is HUGE seeing as they seem to enclose a LOT of important and delicate muscles in our bodies in one giant, complex system. when they looked at it in cancer patients, the tumors they found seemed to kind of be….leaking….into them…..because the tumors were putting pressure on the fluid tubes….which easily collapse…..and move things that fall into the fluid around….

5. the scientists also explored things like hernias and colon damage in relation to these, but unfortunately this is where my translation powers run out as non-plant-related terminology starts being used lmao im so sorry im like this

tl;dr: the membranes that surround some really important parts of squishy things like our stomach, bowels, colon, lungs, muscles, etc are full of very delicate and complex tubing that runs in a weirdly complex system to other important squishy things throughout our bodies and looks like a weird organ that we didn’t know was there before (or like, we knew about it, we just didn’t know it was so…connected and uh…organy). also it seems to have an impact on the spread of cancer throughout these regions

here’s the paper again if you want to have a read and see pics of the tubing itself and draw more in depth conclusions from it lmao 

This summary was great!! I have some more fun translations for y’all:

-the interstitium isn’t so much an organ as a tissue type and it’s p much everywhere you have squishy bits that gotta move

-some cancers can use it to spread (metastasize) to other areas. For example if a dudes got skin cancer but only of the epidermis(v top layer of skin) it’s a p small chance it’ll spread BUT if it gets into the dermis (next layer, where they see this tissue) there’s a much higher chance it’ll spread

-these fluid filled areas could possibly act as one more shock absorbing layer (adipose, or fat, also does this)

-probably also gives organs that move (heart, lungs, stomach, intestines, etc) room to move a bit

-is probably important to a concept called third spacing where fluid collects in your tissues (esp. your legs cuz gravity) bc for some reason your heart isn’t pumping well enough to suck it back up or your kidneys aren’t taking out enough fluid etc etc

-swelling in general is probably super important w/ this

-there are weird flat cells that we don’t really know what they are or what they do yet but we’ve got hypotheses: could be a type of stem cell, could be a type of fibroblast (cell that makes collagen/elastin/etc), could be important to scar formation if so (and a type of scar called keloid scar looks like this tissue but exaggerated)

-may have some big implications for cell to cell communications and inflammatory conditions like IBS/IBD, pancreatitis etc

-we may be able to use this fluid as a diagnostic tool once more research is done

-shows how the specific technology and techniques they used are v v important and how we need WAY more research done in this area

-also cells in the tissue may or may not interact w/ the collagen and that may or may not be important later