Scientists have long theorized about a network of pathways in the brain that are believed to clear metabolic proteins that would otherwise build up and potentially lead to Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. But they had never definitively revealed this network in people -; until now. A new study involving five patients undergoing brain surgery at Oregon Health & Science University provides imaging of this network of perivascular spaces -; fluid-filled structures along arteries and veins -; within the brain for the first time.
Nobody has shown it before now. I was always skeptical about it myself, and there are still a lot of skeptics out there who still don't believe it. That's what makes this finding so remarkable.
" Juan Piantino, M.D., senior author, associate professor of pediatrics (neurology) in the OHSU School of Medicine and faculty member of the Neuroscience Section of the Papé Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU The study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
The study combined the injection of an inert contrasting agent with a special type of magnetic resonance imaging to discern cerebrospinal fluid flowing along distinct pathways in the brain 12, 24 and 48 hours following surgery. In definitively revealing the presence of an efficient waste-clearance system within the human brain, the new study supports the promotion of lifestyle measures and medications already being developed to maintain and enhance it. "This sho.