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They Will Have To Re-Write The Textbooks For This One
In a world that is always moving forward, we really can’t be all that surprised that we continue to find errors in things we so long believed to be true. Scientifically and historically, it can seem like a difficult idea to grasp, as many of us had valuable information drilled into our brains from childhood and onward that fueled us to find fields we could become experts in. But this information was always meant to just help us better understand the world we live in.
Just a couple of weeks ago, researchers at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine made a discovery which will forever alter the way we look at the brain, concluding that there is a direct connection between the brain and the immune system. This connection is by way of vessels that were previously assumed nonexistent.
Jonathan Kipnis, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience and the Director of the University’s Center for Brain Immunology and Glia, expressed his surprise at the discovery: “I really did not believe there were structures in the body that we were not aware of. I thought the body was mapped.”
One of the biggest questions seems to be: How, despite the fact that the lymphatic system has been so thoroughly mapped throughout the body, could these vessels have gone undetected?
There is still much to uncover about what further information this discovery will yield, but it may help open doors for the study and treatment of a variety of neurological diseases including autism, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease.
According to Kipnis, questions like “How do we study the immune response of the brain?” or “Why do multiple sclerosis patients have immune system attacks?” no longer need to be answered thanks to this new discovery. “Now we can approach this mechanistically — because the brain is like every other tissue connected to the peripheral immune system through meningeal lymphatic vessels,” explained Kipnis. “We believe that for every neurological disease that has an immune component to it, these vessels may play a major role.”
Philosophers stone – selected views from the boat http://philosophers-stone.co.uk
Source: http://www.phoenixisrisen.co.uk/?p=9747
