The system acts like pipes that take advantage of the brain blood vessels and seems to do the same function in the brain that the lymphatic system in the body: drain waste products.
The author of the paper and co-director of the Center Neuromedicina University of Rochester, Maiken Nedergaard said "waste cleanup is vital to all organs and long have questions about how the brain gets rid of its waste .
"This work shows that the brain is being cleaned in a more organized and on a much larger scale than was previously believed," said Nedergaard he expressed his hope that this finding serves to treat brain diseases.
"We hope that these results have implications for many conditions that affect the brain, such as traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer's disease, stroke and Parkinson's disease," he added.
Nedergaard equipment has called the new "glinfático system", since it acts similarly to the lymphatic system, but is managed by the cells of the brain known as glial cells.
The team made the discovery in mice, whose brains are very similar to the human brain.
Scientists have long known that the cerebrospinal fluid has an important role in cerebral tissue cleaning, in charge of carrying the waste products and nutrients to brain tissue through a process called diffusion.
The newly discovered system circulates all over the brain more efficiently through what scientists call the overall flow.
"It's as if the brain had two garbage collectors - one slow and one fast we knew we just met," said Nedergaard
"Given the high rate of metabolism in the brain and its high sensitivity, it is not surprising that its mechanisms for disposal of waste is more specialized and extensive than previously thought," he added.
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