Science & Technology

New Organ Classified: The Mesentery

Around a week ago, scientists at the University of Limerick, Ireland, classified a new organ known as the mesentery. The mesentery is a fatty membrane which prevents the intestines from flowing freely in the belly. Holding it in place allows for intestinal processes to perform smoothly. The mesentery was always thought to be fragmented into separate tissues, but after much research, it was confirmed to be one long, continuous organ in the belly. Specifically, the mesentery attaches the stomach, small intestine, pancreas, spleen, and other organs to the posterior wall of the abdomen.

The mesentery has given an anatomical understanding to diseases such as Crohn’s disease, which can cause the mesentery to frequently thicken, thus, if bleeding needs to stop within that area, it would be much more difficult. With its new classification as an organ, you can categorize abdominal diseases through the mesentery, which can introduce new ideas for treatments and cures.

Parts of the mesentery have actually been known for a very long time. It is commonly claimed that a British surgeon named Sir Frederick Treves first described the mesocolon in 1885, but describing the mesentery as a single structure dates as far back as Leonardo Da Vinci, who depicted it in some of his drawings. Since Treves was famous throughout the country for operating on both Queen Victoria and King Edward VII, his research was taken with the highest gratitude, as he studied hundreds of cadavers to develop the initial anatomical description for the mesocolon. That’s why the concept of the mesentery being considered a single organ was unfortunately dismissed. Research on the organ (or back then, a tissue) continued for the upcoming centuries, and in 2012, it was officially concluded to be a contiguous organ, cementing the validity of the new classification.

As a result of the research, this brings the number of organs in our body to a whopping 79. Yeah, 79 organs in such a compact space. Really makes you realize how important each one is in helping the others. It was only recently (within the last decade) that scientists from the University of Limerick combatted the idea of it being just a tissue (which was its original classification). However, its function is still not known in complete detail. The researchers involved in the process stated, “The functional unit of the mesentery is unknown, and whether a distinctive cell type is primarily responsible for its functionality should be investigated.” They don’t even know if it should belong to the digestive, vascular, endocrine, or any system at all. However, the most famous medical textbook, “Gray’s Anatomy”, now includes the mesentery as a distinct organ, so this discovery is obviously highly regarded in the medical field.

Now, in no way is it a contemporary discovery. Yet the scientists and surgeons who combat withstanding discoveries from past researchers show that there’s always something new to learn and to question validity of the evidence around us. This can lead to new discoveries and processes, which in turn creates a chain reaction of additional inventions and ideas. This is what science is all about.

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