Neuroscientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered a connection between the brain and our immune systems. The connection is due to newly discovered lymphatic vessels, and these vessels could advance existing studies on brain disorders in a big way. Brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis plague nearly 5.6 million in the U.S. alone, with no cure having been reached.
Finding A Missing Link That No One Thought Missing
The vessels that link our brain and immune system were previously unknown, never having been detected. This is surprising considering the body’s lymphatic system has been heavily imaged and and mapped in the course of biological research. “I really did not believe there are structures in the body that we are not aware of,” says Jonahathan Kipnis the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Brain Immunology, lead this research. “I thought the body was mapped. I thought that these discoveries ended somewhere around the middle of the last century. But apparently they have not.”
The Lymphatic System
The lymphatic system itself was always understood to be a filtering system for the body’s waste, in charge of toxin removal through its white blood cell supply. While the lymphatic system is not part of the the immune system, it does connect to the other systems of the body. It was also understood that it ended at the skull’s base which meant that it could not really interact with the brain. The brain is connected to the immune system like all other tissue in the human body–the meningeal lymphatic vessels connects the brain and other tissue to the immune system in all of these cases.
How Lymphatic Vessels Will Change Neuroscience
The previously unknown lymphatic vessels were discovered by these neuroscientists through testing on mice. One of the reasons they were difficult to spot was because they are hidden beneath a major blood vessel. After testing the new vessels themselves, it became clear that these vessels are actually a lymphatic vessel acting as a cerebral spinal fluid.
This discovery of these new lymphatic vessels shows contrasting information to the already existing research, likely to prompt a rewriting of medical textbooks for all future generation. We now know the lymphatic system does have access to the brain.
Klipnis explains the pivotal discovery that “changes entirely the way we perceive the neuro-immune interaction. We always perceived it before as something esoteric that can’t be studied.” The future of brain disorders now has a brighter future. Questions about neurological disease and its treatment may soon be answered. These researchers will soon look into how these newly discovered lymphatic vessels are involved in certain neurological disorders.
The Missing Link: New Lymphatic Vessels To Save Us From Brain Disorders
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