If you had a system in your body that was potentially it’s largest undiscovered organ system (bigger than skin or circulatory), you would want to know about it-yes? It potentially has very significant implications in the function of the spread of cancer and its migration throughout the body, and maybe a bunch of other cool functions.
Limitations in traditional microscope sample prep (nearly all traditional microscopic analysis requires a lot of preparation before going into the scope, including dehydration) have masked its presence for a long time. I spent 15 years in microscopy and as soon as I read it, it rang true immediately. There is a lot of prep, even for standard biopsy tissue (slicing/fixing/staining) under a light microscope. To view things smaller than about 1 micron, which is the cellular scale, you need to use different techniques – most of which, until recently, requires the sample to go into a vacuum chamber and then get blasted with a focused electron beam (think of a controlled, mini-beam of lightning focussed on the tissue).
The field of microscopy has made significant gains and advancements in the use of different laser-based techniques that, combined with the increased computing capability we have today, produce stellar, high-resolution images of living tissues. It’s really fascinating. One of these techniques gave researchers a look at live tissues, and lo and behold, what they thought was a network of connective tissue because it collapsed under sample prep/dehydration, was actually a vast network of fluid-filled spaces that act as a transport system
It seems to be a system similar to blood but with a different aqueous substance that flows through it acting as a secondary transport system interacting with the lymphatic system.. Maybe flushing away wastes etc.
This is why science is awesome…and religion is foolish.
When you have religion (with the exception of some eastern religions like Buddhism/Hinduism/Bahai etc.) all the answers are provided for you. They are all in one little book written like thousands of years ago (choose your religion). All neat and tidy, with no requirements for critical analysis.
Cancer must be God’s will – why would we interfere? Fuck all that. Look down at your hands and into your mind for answers, not upward towards the heavens (unless you are studying astrophysics or something-then carry on).
Apologies to my religious colleagues. I respect your right to believe what you wish, so long as it doesn’t interfere with my rights. We are all trapped in a state of self-delusion somewhere or other. That in itself is no vice, wallowing in ignorance, spreading your delusion, and influencing education or public policy based on your personal self-delusion however, is not a virtue.
I have been vocal on “praying the sick away” which is a sticky issue. If you refuse to get medical treatment for yourself and die – I’m fine with that. If you pray over your kids and they die = CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE.
Science doesn’t have all of the answers…yet. Maybe some questions cannot be answered by science definitively, but those same questions are only answered by religion through faith. This is like taking for fact that Helios is dragging the sun through the sky on his chariot or Jesus walked on water/fed 300 people with 2 loaves and 2 fishes, or if we cut the heart out of this child, maybe it will appease the gods and bring rain.
Please do not fill the comments with justification for religious beliefs – I’ve already done the critical analysis on that one, around age 12, maybe age 14 – it doesn’t add up and never will. Take my advice on this – I’ll go down the rabbit hole as deep as you want on that one, in a separate post, and you won’t enjoy it.
Following this, the next 4 years were spent in Catholic High School, trying to understand the basis of faith found in many respected, intelligent, well-meaning priests, brothers and teachers.
I found the logic vacant then, and despite my intense curiosity on the issue itself since then, have had absolutely zero life experiences since that would even hint at the existence of an omnipotent God.
If this world is the creation of an Omnipotent God – I want to fight him/her. I get the argument for evil among men proceeding from a granted free will. Can somebody please tell me then what the hell that has to do with kids getting cancer and other horrible diseases? That god would exchange childhood cancer, in exchange for the experience of being loved by someone with free will should free you from any obligation to revere it.
Is it their original sin? The dark mark placed upon all of us before we even take a breath. Wait…what?
OK – back to Interstitium:
The interstitium is a contiguous fluid-filled space existing between a structural barrier, such as a cell wall or the skin, and internal structures, such as organs, including muscles and the circulatory system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstitium