[HN Gopher] Fourth membrane is discovered in the brain
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Fourth membrane is discovered in the brain
Author : atombender
Score : 89 points
Date : 2023-01-06 19:28 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.science.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
| atombender wrote:
| Here [1] is a New Scientist article about it. The tl;dr is:
|
| > A new anatomical structure has been discovered that is part of
| the brain's waste disposal system. The tissue is a thin membrane
| encasing the brain that keeps newly made cerebrospinal fluid -
| which circulates inside the brain - separate from "dirty" fluid
| containing cells' waste products.
|
| [1] https://www.newscientist.com/article/2353622-weve-just-
| disco...
| [deleted]
| erk__ wrote:
| A interesting factoid about this paper is that the first author
| Kjeld Mollgard, is a 80 year old former rector of University of
| Copenhagen. The Danish articles about that have been highlighting
| that, and that he now have to change what he is teaching after 50
| years.
| Eduard wrote:
| "factoid" is an incorrect fact.
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| From the first sentence in the article you're linking:
|
| [...] or a true but brief or trivial item of news or
| information.
| UniverseHacker wrote:
| That link also mentions that it's used to refer to a brief or
| trivial true fact.
| hirenj wrote:
| He's at my department at the Uni (well up until he retired),
| and the crazy thing is he's been employed at the Uni for his
| whole adult life, since starting as a student helper at around
| 18.
| Heechee wrote:
| The text was a bit hard to understand, so I asked for ChatGPT's
| help:
|
| I apologize if the information was difficult to understand.
| Meninges are the layers of tissue that surround and protect the
| brain and spinal cord. There are three main meningeal layers: the
| dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater. The dura mater is the
| outermost layer and is tough and protective. The arachnoid mater
| is the middle layer and is thin and web-like. The pia mater is
| the innermost layer and is thin and closely adheres to the
| surface of the brain and spinal cord.
|
| Mollgard et al. have discovered a fourth layer of meningeal
| tissue, called the subarachnoid lymphatic-like membrane (SLYM),
| that is located between the arachnoid mater and the pia mater.
| SLYM is a barrier that separates the subarachnoid space (the
| space between the arachnoid mater and the pia mater) into two
| compartments and contains immune cells called myeloid cells. This
| layer may be involved in immune surveillance in the cerebrospinal
| fluid and in the exchange of small solutes between the
| cerebrospinal fluid and venous blood. This discovery provides new
| insights into the function of the meninges and the immune system
| in the brain. Is there anything else I can help with?
| SketchySeaBeast wrote:
| Given that ChatGPT will lie with absolute conviction I don't
| think we should make a habit of posting article summaries it
| generates.
| 2snakes wrote:
| What were your "search terms" when asking ChatGPT?
| lanstin wrote:
| More proof of where on the path of a mechanistic explanation of
| the brain, finding a whole new compartmentalization makes it seem
| like "not that far."
|
| Biology always seems like the work of a mad hacker with no code
| reviews for a billion years.
| electrondood wrote:
| Biology to me seems like the work of a billion years of
| iterations in an evolutionary neural network.
|
| If the human body were a codebase, there's no way in hell it
| would work so well if it were the product of any other process.
| bitwize wrote:
| > mad hacker
|
| You might even say they were "insane in the membrane".
|
| Thanks everyone, enjoy the veal!
| NetOpWibby wrote:
| INSANE IN THE BRAIN
| gremlinsinc wrote:
| [flagged]
| nh23423fefe wrote:
| Is this skepticism of the existence of a mechanistic
| explanation or just commentary on progress?
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| bregma wrote:
| Not sure how a membrane that surrounds the brain is part of a
| mechanistic explanation of the brain (by which I assume you
| mean the mind). This seems to serve more of a CSF (cerebro-
| spinal fluid) filter function.
| jchanimal wrote:
| Maybe substitute "physicalistic" (as opposed to
| computational) for "mechanistic". I think there is something
| to the idea that physical layout could be tuned to use
| various waves (electromagnetic, fluid pressure, etc) for
| signaling. So it may not all be axons and dendrites, it might
| also work like a big capacitor / resonator, transmitting
| macro information through every worthwhile sidechannel. Who's
| to say all those side-channels are known to current science?
| eurasiantiger wrote:
| For all we know, we could have an interited quantum-
| coherent base pair linking us to all other living entities.
| canadianfella wrote:
| [dead]
| [deleted]
| unsupp0rted wrote:
| > SLYM is immunophenotypically distinct from the other meningeal
| layers in the human and mouse brain and represents a tight
| barrier for solutes of more than 3 kilodaltons, effectively
| subdividing the subarachnoid space into two different
| compartments. SLYM is the host for a large population of myeloid
| cells, the number of which increases in response to inflammation
| and aging, so this layer represents an innate immune niche
| ideally positioned to surveil the cerebrospinal fluid.
| [deleted]
| samstave wrote:
| I learned a whole bunch of new words from you, thank you.
|
| may you please unpack this sentence, as I dont know exactly it
| means:
|
| > _ideally positioned to surveil the cerebrospinal fluid._
| hirenj wrote:
| The immune system needs to sample and test whatever is in the
| cerebrospinal fluid so that it knows when to activate.
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