Checkout another organ hiding in your belly

 

Irish researchers have confirmed that the mesentery — a fold of membrane that connects the intestine to the abdomen — is its own continuous organ, and not a series of fragmented parts like experts had previously thought.

The discovery could create a new field of "mesenteric" science and may help doctors better understand and treat abdominal diseases, said Calvin Coffey, a professor of surgery at University of Limerick's Graduate Entry Medical School.

Digital representation of the small and large intestines and associated mesentery.

Image: The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology

"We are now saying we have an organ in the body which hasn't been acknowledged as such to date," he said in a news release.

Coffey published his peer-reviewed findings in the November issue of The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, a top medical journal on the digestive system.

Mashable was unable to reach Coffey for comment by the time of publication.

An organ is considered to be a self-contained body part that serves a specific vital function. The heart, for instance, is a muscular organ that pumps blood through our blood vessels. 

Researchers say they still don't quite understand the mesentery's key functions, beyond the obvious role as a connective layer.

One of the world's earliest depictions of the mesentery was produced by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. While his drawing and subsequent medical illustrations showed the mesentery as a continuous structure, in the past century scientists came to believe it was a series of broken-up pieces, and thus less medically significant.

"When we approach it like every other organ...we can categorize abdominal disease in terms of this organ," he said in the news release.

"This is relevant universally as it affects all of us," he added. "Up to now there was no such field as mesenteric science."