Surprising new role for lungs: Making blood
Launch of platelets within the lung vasculature. Credit score: Picture courtesy of College of California - San Francisco Utilizing video microscopy within the residing mouse lung, UC San Francisco scientists have revealed that the lungs play a beforehand unrecognized function in blood manufacturing. As reported on-line March 22, 2017 in Nature , the researchers discovered that the lungs produced greater than half of the platelets -- blood parts required for the clotting that stanches bleeding -- within the mouse circulation. In one other shock discovering, the scientists additionally recognized a beforehand unknown pool of blood stem cells able to restoring blood manufacturing when the stem cells of the bone marrow, beforehand considered the principal web site of blood manufacturing, are depleted. "This discovering undoubtedly suggests a extra subtle view of the lungs -- that they are not only for respiration but additionally a key associate in formation of e...