Lymphatic System on Michael’s Domain

Minireview about key molecules in lymphatic development, function, and identification

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Erich Brenner asked us more than a year ago whether we could contribute to the special issue about human lymph vessels he was editing for Annals of Anatomy. We agreed that we might be able to contribute a minireview. In the beginning, I was also hesitating, because Annals of Anatomy is not per se an open access journal. However, our university has meanwhile started to cover the article processing charges (APCs) for several publishers (including the biggest scientific publisher on this planet - Elsevier ) to make articles open access . Thus, everybody can not only read the article already now, but also share, copy and redistribute it, remix, transform, and build upon it for any purpose, even for commercial purposes as long as we - the original authors - are credited.The target audience is not the lymphatic research community, but outsiders, who need a first, very brief introduction to the molecules that are most central to the molecular biology of the lymphatic system. The selection is clearly biased by our own research history. Please write us an angry e-mail if we did not include your pet protein! If you convince us that your pet protein is central to lymphatic development or function, we’ll include it in our next review!

Centrifugal and centripetal embryonic lymphatic development

Tue, 19 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Since the beginning of last century, researchers have been arguing about the embryonic origin of the lymphatic system. Some claimed that it is in its entirety an outgrowth from blood vessels (so-called centrifugal hypothesis with Florence Sabin and Louis-Antoine Ranvier as early proponents, this mechanism of growth is called “lymphangiogenesis”). Others maintained the view that the lymph vessels do form newly from precursor cells in the mesenchyme (so-called centripetal hypothesis with George Huntington and Charles McClure as early proponents, this mechanism is called “lymphvasculogenesis”). This controversy has been going on for more than a century and several published studies within the last years show, that the truth lies somewhere in between both views. Such synthesis had been proposed already in 1932 by van der Jagt. Kenny Mattonet and myself wrote a short update on the topic and you can read the English version or the German original .

Erkrankungen des Lymphgefäßsystems (Diseases of the Lymphatic System)

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The 6th edition of the the book Erkrankungen des Lymphgefäßsystems (Diseases of the Lymphatic System) is out. It’s a German language textbook, for which Kenny Mattonet, Jörg Wilting and myself wrote the fifth chapter (Genetic causes of primary lymphedema). Get it from here , since Amazon still sells the old, 5th edition. If you have a really good excuse why you should get one for free, mail me! I have a few copies.

SVS or lymphatic system?

Sun, 26 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In 2003, I wrote a review article about the lymphatic system , in which I briefly discuss the general setup of the lymphatics in different animals and I got the part about the lymphatic system in fishes wrong. Or at the very least it was incomplete.While mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibia are quite easily defined animal classes, there is no animal class “fishes”. Different ways exist to classify “fishes”, but at least three animal classes are needed to accommodate the living “fishes”: cartilaginous fishes, ray-finned bony fishes and lobe-finned fishes. Almost all research on the lymphatic system of fishes had been done on teleost fishes (one of three infraclasses of the ray-finned bony fishes). Teleostei comprise most of the living fishes including the mostly studied zebrafish (Danio rerio) . So everything that follows is about this infraclass (and hence might not apply to sharks and sturgeons to name just two non-teleost fishes).

Historic articles about the lymphatic system

Sat, 25 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000