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A study published on March 27th in Nature by researchers from the New York Univeristy‘s School Of Medicine postulates an entirely new organ, the interstitium, basically a fluid/tissue system that is supposedly larger than the skin itself.

Is this discovery as great as it sounds? Based on how I understand the article, the type of tissue was already known. The article only shows article mere scale of it.

How feasible is it that this organ was undetected by now? How feasible is it that the tissue does in fact qualify as a fluid system and organ and isn’t just a type of tissue?

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    Interesting article! At first glance I wasn't sure this question was answerable, it seemed more of a discussion of opinions; however, I think it may actually be answerable with an analysis of the definitions of organ and organ system including histology and function. I actually rather like conceptualizing the interstitial space as a more organized functional system. It might qualify as a lymphatic organ if you really nitpick it.
    – DoctorWhom
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 0:56
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    @DoctorWhom One of the authors of the study themselves said they won’t expect it to qualify as an organ. I mean, the question as it currently stands basically requires a definition of what an organ is and whether interstitium follows that definition. Regarding the first part of the question: What I‘ve read in news articles covering this study is ghat they used a different method for the histological analysis. Previously, the tissue was always put in certain chemicals that destroyed the interstitial space for microscopy. They did it differently and hence found more interstitial space.
    – Narusan
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 6:59
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    I was utterly confused by the title, despite readng about this issue before. This might benefit from "as a separate organ" in the title and maybe from exchanging "feasible" into something else. "Interstitium" was used for quite a number of "things/entities". Once clarified it might be very interesting.
    – LаngLаngС
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 13:14
  • @LangLangC Better?
    – Narusan
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 22:37

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Short answer
The authors explicitly mention to have found a component of tissues, not an organ.

Background
The authors make no mention of an 'organ'. Here's an excerpt from the Discussion section of the linked paper:

In sum, while typical descriptions of the interstitium suggest spaces between cells, we describe macroscopically visible spaces within tissues – dynamically compressible and distensible sinuses through which interstitial fuid fows around the body.

It's all about semantics: they say 'macroscopically visible spaces within tissues'. So they speak on a sub-tissue scale. Now the following figure shows the layers of organzation in an organism, which has significance to your question. It shows that organs are made our of tissues. In turn, the authors of the article are explicitly talking about interstitial spaces within tissues, and they do not claim to have found an organ anywhere in the paper. Instead, the authors claim to have stumbled upon interstitial found within tissues, so indeed at a sub-tissue level.

organization
Fig. 1. Layers of organization. source: Encyclopedia Lubopitko

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    And of course they correspond to the Chinese meridian channels of Chi ! Well that's the claim.
    – Graham Chiu
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 17:50
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    Compression of these structures generates an electrical signal. So they're wondering if this is acupuncture mechanism
    – Graham Chiu
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 18:38
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    The cells may also be mesenchymal stem cells, says Dr. Theise, which are known to be capable of contributing to the formation of scar tissue seen in inflammatory diseases. Lastly, the protein bundles seen in the space are likely to generate electrical current as they bend with the movements of organs and muscles around them, and may play a role in techniques like acupuncture, he says.
    – Graham Chiu
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 18:42
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    Basically they're saying that what we considered third space actually has a structure which cushions the organs and connects them bioelectrically
    – Graham Chiu
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 18:46
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    One of many similar news coverages - that's how I got the impression of a new organ discovered.
    – Narusan
    Commented Mar 29, 2018 at 22:21

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