New Research Suggests the Appendix Has a Purpose After All (qz.com)

The appendix is an organ thought to have gone the way of our wisdom teeth and body hair: At one point we all needed them, now people can get by just fine without them. However, it turns out, at least the appendix has some purpose in the body. From a report: Scientists, though, have never been certain what the appendix used to do -- and if it is still, in fact, useless. On Jan. 9, a team of researchers led by scientists at Midwestern University Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine published a review study proposing an answer: the appendix is a secondary immune function that both catalyzes immune cell responses and floods your gut with beneficial bacteria when they've been depleted. And it still plays that role, in a limited fashion, in human body function."We can function okay without it, but the appendix does provide some degree of immunity and beneficial bacteria,â Heather Smith, an anatomist and lead author of the paper said.

Comments

"News"

[ledow]

Not news.

The appendix has MANY subtle jobs rather than one obvious one, that's why you can do without it.

I've been telling people for 20+ years after reading it online that the appendix is PARTLY a store of stomach bacteria etc. to help reseed the stomach in the case of it being flushed during illness.

People with appendices recover better from a bout of stomach flu and are less likely to get knock-on infections that those without. It's been in the medical literature for decades, at least, and been on this site at least twice I'm sure.

It's also not the appendix's only job.

This is not "news" at all.

How is this news?

[argStyopa]

I've read about this role for the appendix for at least 5 years? At LEAST.

Here's an early article I found on the subject https://blogs.scientificameric... - and if SciAm had it in 2012, it had to be relatively established information, they're not anywhere near cutting-edge reportage.

And here's a Discover magazine thing saying the same thing in 2008: http://discovermagazine.com/20...

Re:Mystery solved

[ledow]

Because DNA of anything tends to carry legacies and evolve from previous similar things rather than just invent random stuff. Re-use is a large factor of DNA and it's complexity masks a lot of differences. That's why most diseases are NOT "just one dodgy gene".

This is why two testicles look similar to two ovaries, and why there's two of each, and why both sexes have pubic hair and anus in the same place, and why the female pelvis - though differing dimensions - isn't fucking octagonal or something.

And your gender is determined not in some magical early moment but quite late in foetal development, and not cast in stone as you're also surrounded by female hormones until birth.

More strange is why certain birds have such vastly different coloured/shaped/sized male/females.

White Blood Cells, part of the Immune System

[CrashNBrn]

The Appendix: Slimy But Not Worthless (2006)

The appendix is a slimy, dead-end sac that hangs between the small and large intestines. It's about a half inch in diameter and three inches long. As quickly as 11 weeks after conception, the appendix starts making endocrine cells for the developing fetus. Endocrine cells secrete useful chemicals, such as hormones, and the appendix endocrine cells secrete amines and peptide hormones that help with biological checks and balances as the fetus grows.

After birth, the appendix mainly helps the body stave off disease by serving as a lymphoid organ. Lymphoid organs, with their lymphoid tissue, make white blood cells and antibodies.

The appendix, by virtue of its lymphoid tissue, is part of a complicated chain that makes B lymphocytes (one variety of white blood cell) and a class of antibodies known as immunoglobulin A antibodies. The appendix also produces certain chemicals that help direct the white blood cells to the parts of the body where they are needed the most.

The dirty gut is a good training ground for young white blood cells. The appendix, with its sac routinely collecting and expelling foodstuffs, exposes the white blood cells to myriad bacteria, viruses and drugs passing through the gastrointestinal tract. This way, the white blood cells learn to fight potentially deadly bacteria, such as E.coli.

The appendix's contribution to the body's white blood cell and antibody production reaches its peak when you are about 20 or 30 years old, then production falls off sharply. By age 60, the appendix serves very little active purpose. ...

Emphasis mIne.

It's confirmation, and I approve

[Bigjeff5]

If you thought you knew this before a study like this came out, then you're as bad as all the other gullible sheep out there, because there was not a large body of good evidence to point to to support that opinion.

The study in the Qartz article is a review study, looking at hundreds of other studies. It's an extremely important kind of study for solidifying our understanding of how things work, and frankly in my opinion they often don't get enough attention because people think they know these things already. You did not know these things already. You had a couple of articles that you'd seen before that suggested maybe the appendix isn't as useless as doctors used to think, but you didn't have a body of evidence that you could point to to prove that fact. Now you do. That's the importance of the study.

Of course, in typical fashion the SlashDot summary woefully misrepresents it as a study saying "Hey guys! I found this brand new thing that other people have already found! Check it out!", which of course that isn't what the study was doing at all.

Re: Purpose?

[Anonymous Coward]

The purpose is store sliced carrot. Haven't you noticed that when you vomit there is always carrot in there, even if it has been months since you ate any?