The Interstitium is not designated as an organ yet, but it may become the 80th organ in our bodies. If so it would be the third major “discovery” in the last 5 years.
First was the discovery that there is lymph system in the brain. The mention of lymph in the brain for years and years got you laughed out of medicine.
Second was the reclassification of the Mesentery as an organ. It’s all in your guts and does some really cool things.
The Interstitium has always existed in Oriental Medicine (OM), called the “Cou Li” the spaces between organs. It was found in Western Medicine (WM) by using a new way to sample tissue. They took some tissue from a living person and did not desiccate it, (press or dry it out). Then they realized there is a whole bunch of connections and fluid pathways. The more they looked, the more they found. Now they think this “organ” can be 20% of your body’s weight. Which would make it the biggest organ you have.
I think the important thing from the discovery was the technology they used to find the Interstitium. They used “living” tissue more or less in it’s living state. I think the discovery’s WM would make if they quite doing all this research on animals and studying tissue via autopsy, would revolutionize medicine. You fix people by working with living people, but much of WM was built studying dead people and animals. There is a difference between us and monkeys and rats, maybe small but enough…Read more
