What Is Mesentery? New Human Organ Defined By Irish Scientists

For over 100 years, medical science identified mesentery, a part of the digestive system, as a fragmented structure made up of several components. But detailed study of the mesentery has now led to calls for reclassifying it as an organ, making it the newest one to be defined as such.

J. Calvin Coffey, a professor of surgery at University of Limerick’s Graduate Entry Medical School in the Republic of Ireland, authored a research paper, published in the journal the Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, in which he says “distinctive anatomical and functional features have been revealed that justify designation of the mesentery as an organ.”

The mesentery connects the intestine to the abdomen, and better understanding it could improve healthcare, including surgeries, associated with the region.

“In the paper, which has been peer reviewed and assessed, we are now saying we have an organ in the body which hasn’t been acknowledged as such to date. When we approach it like every other organ… we can categorize abdominal disease in terms of this organ,” Coffey said in a statement.

The development is a case of reclassification of existing body parts, not the discovery of a new one, and apart from surgery, it also has implications for the sciences of anatomy and prenatal development.

“This is relevant universally as it affects all of us. Up to now there was no such field as mesenteric science. Now we have established anatomy and the structure. The next step is the function. If you understand the function you can identify abnormal function, and then you have disease. Put them all together and you have the field of mesenteric science…the basis for a whole new area of science,” Coffey said.

According to the university, “Gray’s Anatomy” — an often-used medical textbook around the world — has been updated to reflect the new classification.

The study was published under the title “The mesentery: structure, function, and role in disease.”