New research shows immune system is directly connected to brain through previously unknown lymphatic vessels. This could lead to a possible breakthrough in understanding Autoimmune diseases.
Experts say it will definitely change medical textbooks.
http://news.virginia.edu/content/researchers-find-textbook-altering-link-between-brain-immune-system
by JOSH BARNEY … , researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist. … That such vessels could have escaped detection when the lymphatic system has been so thoroughly mapped throughout the body is surprising on its own, … … The discovery was made possible by the work of Antoine Louveau, a postdoctoral fellow in Kipnis’ lab. The vessels were detected after Louveau developed a method to mount a mouse’s meninges – the membranes covering the brain – on a single slide so that they could be examined as a whole. “It was fairly easy, actually," he said. “There was one trick: We fixed the meninges within the skullcap, so that the tissue is secured in its physiological condition, and then we dissected it. If we had done it the other way around, it wouldn’t have worked." After noticing vessel-like patterns in the distribution of immune cells on his slides, he tested for lymphatic vessels and there they were. The impossible existed. The soft-spoken Louveau recalled the moment: “I called Jony [Kipnis] to the microscope and I said, ‘I think we have something.’" As to how the brain’s lymphatic vessels managed to escape notice all this time, Kipnis described them as “very well hidden" and noted that they follow a major blood vessel down into the sinuses, an area difficult to image. “It’s so close to the blood vessel, you just miss it," he said. “If you don’t know what you’re after, you just miss it.:wow: That is some amazing stuff. Folds within folds of harmonic complexity. love it