Meet 'mesentery' – The newly discovered 79th organ hiding in your body!

A digital representation of the small and large intestines and associated mesentery. (Image courtesy: J Calvin Coffey/D Peter O’Leary/Henry Vandyke Carter)

New Delhi: Think of it as a new year present from scientists and say hello to your newest organ! Yes, strange as it may sound, scientists have discovered a new organ inside the human body, which has been hiding there all this time.

Known as mesentery, it resides in our digestive system and has been evading everyone forever, till now.

Initially believed to be just a few fragmented structures in the digestive system, scientists have now confirmed that it is, in fact, a continuous organ.

Although, its function is still unclear after discovery, scientists believe that studying it could be the key to better understanding and treatment of abdominal and digestive disease.

J Calvin Coffey, a researcher at the University Hospital Limerick who made the discovery said that, "When we approach it like every other organ… we can categorize abdominal disease in terms of this organ."

“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,” he added, The Independent reported.

The fact that the mesentery is a distinct organ is now being taught to medical students, following its reclassification.

Furthermore, Gray’s Anatomy, the world’s most famous medical textbook, has been updated to include the new definition.

But, what exactly is the mesentery? According to Science Alert, it is a double fold of peritoneum – the lining of the abdominal cavity – that attaches our intestine to the wall of our abdomen, and keeps everything locked in place.

Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first ones to give it an appropriate description in 1508, but it has been ignored throughout the centuries, until now.

In 2012, Coffey and his colleagues showed through detailed microscopic examinations that the mesentery is actually a continuous structure.

Over the past four years, they've gathered further evidence that the mesentery should actually be classified as its own distinct organ, and the latest paper makes it official.

Although there are generally considered to be five organs in the human body, namely the heart, brain, liver, lungs and kidneys, there are now 79, including the mesentery.