“They’ll have to change the textbooks” was the reaction by Kevin Lee (chairman of the University of Virginia’s Department of Neuroscience) regarding the discovery of the central nervous system’s lymphatic vasculature. The long-held concept of the absence of lymphatic vasculature in the central nervous system was overturned by the team at the University of Virginia’s Center for Brain Immunology and Glia. Here they discovered functional lymphatic vessels lining the dural sinuses that express all of the molecular hallmarks of lymphatic endothelial cells, are able to carry both fluid and immune cells from the cerebrospinal fluid, and are connected to the deep cervical nodes.

The true significance of this discovery lies in the importance it has for the etiology and treatment of neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases such as autism, Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis. The findings of the article has already been published online in Nature and will appear in a forthcoming issue.

Extract of article completed by Dr. Bianca Thomas (University of Johannesburg)

Full article can be accessed at:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-06/uovh-mlf052915.php