2024-01-10 16:26:00
[앵커]
If waste products produced by brain activity are not excreted and accumulate, nerve cells are damaged, leading to brain diseases such as dementia.
So, the discharge of waste products from the brain is more important than anything else, but the exact route of this discharge was not known until now.
However, a domestic research team was the first in the world to discover the central route through which waste products escape from the brain and presented a new method of treating dementia.
Reporter Yang Hui-young is reporting.
[기자]
When we use our heads, a type of waste product is created in the brain. If this waste product is not discharged out of the brain and accumulates, it damages nerve cells and causes brain diseases such as dementia.
The problem is that the main route through which cerebrospinal fluid, including waste products, escapes has been shrouded in mystery.
However, a domestic research team discovered the central route through which cerebrospinal fluid drains out of the brain.
The cerebrospinal fluid collects in the nasopharyngeal lymphatic network behind the nose, and then connects to the neck lymphatics and neck lymph nodes, which play a role in draining the cerebrospinal fluid out of the brain.
[윤진희 / IBS 혈관연구단 선임연구원 : 우리 연구팀은 림프관의 형광 단백질을 발현하는 특수 생쥐를 이용하여 뇌 기저부와 목 부위에 뇌척수액 배출 경로를 정교하게 시각화하였습니다.]
The key conclusion is that the nasopharyngeal lymphatic network serves as a hub for the cerebrospinal fluid drainage pathway.
The research team also confirmed that with aging, the nasopharyngeal lymphatic network deforms and cerebrospinal fluid discharge decreases. Unusually, there was no deformation of the neck lymphatic vessels due to aging.
As a result, the contraction and relaxation of muscle cells in the neck lymphatic vessels were induced by drug control.
We found that it worked like a kind of pump, allowing the cerebrospinal fluid to be easily drained.
[고규영 / IBS 혈관연구단장 : 이 목 부위 림프관을 효율적으로 자극하는 방법을 개발하여 뇌척수액의 배출, 즉 뇌 청소를 원활하게 하고자 합니다. 치매를 비롯한 신경퇴행성 뇌 질환의 예방과 치료 개념에 새로운 토대가 될 것입니다.]
The research team explained that the results of this study are meaningful in that they confirmed that the discharge of cerebrospinal fluid containing waste products can be easily controlled from the neck, not the head.
Additionally, they are currently researching the cerebrospinal fluid drainage pathway in a primate animal model, and are obtaining results similar to those in mice.
The results of this study were published in the world-famous international academic journal ‘Nature’.
This is Yang Hwayeong from YTN Science.
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