La découverte qu'un ensemble de vaisseaux lymphatiques interagissant avec des vaisseaux sanguins pour éliminer les déchets toxiques du cerveau est impliqué dans la cognition, le vieillissement et certains désordres tels que la maladie d'Alzheimer a été rapportée.
A network of lymphatic vessels acts in tandem with the blood vasculature to regulate fluid balance in the body. The brain does not have its own lymphatic network, but the cellular membranes around the brain, known as the meninges, do have a network of lymphatic vessels. This meningeal lymphatic system was first found in 1787 and has been ‘rediscovered’ this decade. Do the meningeal lymphatics have a role in brain diseases, as systemic lymphatic vessels do in systemic diseases such as cancer1? In a paper in Nature, Da Mesquita et al. show that meningeal lymphatic vessels help to maintain both cognitive function and the proper levels of proteins in brain fluids (a process called proteostasis). The finding has implications for normal ageing and disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.