A team of physiologists from various US institutions has identified a network of compartments interconnected and filled with liquid found between different tissues of the human body, according to an article published this March 27 by the journal Scientific Reports.
These scientists propose to call their discovery interstice. That system would be responsible for accumulating the previously known interstitial fluid, of which adults have about 12 liters and which physiologists used to refer to as a space between cells, not as an organ.
The interstice would absorb shocks to protect the vital tissues of the body. On the other hand, their anatomical structures would contribute to the spread of cancerous metastases, edema or fibrosis. Thus, it would be supported on a mesh of flexible proteins (collagens) and would be found both in the deep dermis and in the viscera, muscles and lungs.
To identify their existence, these specialists used microscopic methods: frozen biopsy and histology with fluorescent agents. These tests established similar reticular patterns between tissues that, until now, were estimated to have no anatomical correlation.
In their experiments, researchers used both material collected from volunteer patients between 2012 and 2013 as samples from tissue banks