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Dr. Zamboni explains the importance of the most recent discovery from the University of Virginia, published in Nature: which is that a lattice of lymph vessels carrying immune cells are associated with veins flow which out along the cerebral veins into the extracranial veins.

"This is a very important article published in Nature. It is found that it is NOT true that the brain is segregated from the point of view immune system, because it does not have the lymphatic system as the other organs. The brain is the same as other organs. And you know where this happens? The vessels are attached to the veins of the sinus, where we have seen extra pressure when the jugular is not working well! If we have an increase of pressure, it decreases this area; If the vein dilates because of increased pressure, the lymphatic vessel is being crushed and lymphatic microcirculation cannot drain."
(transcript and adaptation of The Admin of CCSVI in SM).
Thank you to Alessandro Rasman for the video:



This discovery will be the game changer--we are getting there,
cheer

The vessels are attached to the veins of the sinus, where we have seen extra pressure when the jugular is not working well!

This! Where are our mathematical physicists, we need some modelling of this asap please and pretty! How well studied is the lymphatic system elsewhere in the body? Is it affected by gravity and the head being above the heart?

Not like I want to ruin the fun but if you look at articles you can see that the discovery was made in Mouses:

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/06June/Page ... vered.aspx

It is true that it could work the same way in humans and I hope so it will because it could lead to a new era in MS treatment.

Thanks, Eric. We all know it was discovered in mice-
however, the blood brain barrier also exists in mice, and it was previously thought--until this ground-breaking Un. of Virginia study- that the brain was immune privileged in mice, and there was a lack of lymphatics....but this was wrong.

This is what was thought, up until last week....

Immune privilege is based on multiple factors, including: 1) presence of the blood-brain barrier (BBB); 2) lack of draining lymphatics; 3) a dearth of professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs), such as dendritic cells (DCs); 4) low expression levels of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules; and 5) many anti-inflammatory soluble modulators1, 2.

http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140321/ ... 04422.html

So what does this mean? In the biggest sense, it means that something we have believed as dogma did not exist in the brain does, and has been in plain sight. This finding is radical in this historical context, but connects the brain immune system to the body in a way that feels intuitive. These data show that the brain is in no way immune privileged in the classic sense, although the brain immune response is in some ways different from peripheral immune responses.

http://www.sciguru.org/newsitem/19107/b ... -privilege
The next step will be to study the meninges in humans---but you have to understand that this detection of previously unseen lymphatics in the mouse brain points to the same in humans-- we just know where to look now.

cheer

EricDrake wrote:It is true that it could work the same way in humans and I hope so it will because it could lead to a new era in MS treatment.

A good discussion can be found here, albeit from a neurologist perspective: http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blog ... mmune.html

However, we knew that stuff was getting into that lymph gland because when you look in the lymph glands you could see myelin

de Vos AF, van Meurs M, Brok HP, Boven LA, Hintzen RQ, van der Valk P, Ravid R, Rensing S, Boon L, 't Hart BA, Laman JD.Transfer of central nervous system autoantigens and presentation in secondary lymphoid organs. J Immunol. 2002; 169(10):5415-23.

So does this idea in mice occur in humans, is the next question

As Dr Love and Friends have reported that myelin antigens are found in lymph glands in mice, monkeys and humans then the answer is probably yes.

We've had 100 years of thinking that the brain should not have immune cells in it---
that immune cells were only there to fight infection, or after stroke and in an autoimmune disease.
That the brain was different from the rest of the body and immune-privileged.
Any indication that immune cells circulate the brain, via lymphatics, and are part of a healthy, functioning immune system is brand new! There was one researcher who has been publishing on the reality of immune cells in the brain, and she has some interesting ideas on MS treatments---

more on Dr. Michal Schwartz:

But even before the U of V publication, there has been one researcher who has single-handedly been challenging the dogma on the immune privileged brain---she has been asserting the need for immune cells in our central nervous system. She has been ridiculed, mocked and ignored--because she has stated that immune cells are supposed to be in the brain to aid, repair and rebuild. She has published on the premise that immune cells are neuroprotective.

http://ccsviinms.blogspot.com/2015/06/d ... right.html

Ground breaking research- interesting times,
cheer

https://cosmosmagazine.com/life-science ... your-brain

The researchers think they have also found similar lymphatic vessel structures in human brain samples, which may provide a fresh angle for neurological disease treatment. In multiple sclerosis, immune cells breach the central nervous system and attack the neurons’ insulating layers of myelin. And in Alzheimer’s disease, cell death is accompanied by protein clumping between neurons. Kipnis speculates that inefficient brain drainage could play a role in these conditions. His team is now looking into how the vessels differ in the brain of patients with brain diseases.

Inefficient brain drainage could play a role in MS, his team is looking into how the vessels differ in patients with brain diseases -- good news

The wikipedia article about the glymphatic system (the only similar thing known to date) has already been actualised with the new discovery (maybe by someone around here?)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glymphatic_system