Splenic Views

Modern microscopy often aims to pull numbers out of life – quantifying details revealed by increasingly sophisticated techniques. But here researchers take a fresh approach to step inside human tissue and solve a mystery. First, they use pictures of human spleen tissue (left) to create a computer model (right), highlighting tiny blood vessels in blue and green. Next using virtual reality – they cast an expert eye on a strange quirk of the tissue. Normally blood flows through tissues in a closed loop, with tiny vessels called capillaries eventually connecting to veins. But the spleen has unusual microcirculation that is completely open (open ends highlighted in red) – blood cells flop out of capillaries into the tissue like children off a water slide, before later re-entering circulation around structures called sinuses (white structures, left). The team believe this flexibility helps splenic cells to weed out harmful chemicals and distribute useful ones for the blood to carry around the body.

Written by John Ankers

John Ankers

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A former researcher in systems biology, John is now an online biology tutor and professional coach supporting the wellbeing of scientists and NHS professionals. He's writing, too, of course.

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• Image from work by Birte S. Steiniger and colleagues
• Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Scientific Reports, October 2022