Lifeboat Foundation

There’s a whole network and we’ve never seen these before!

We often think of bone as something that is structurally solid, especially its hard outer layer, called cortical bone.

But a new discovery of never-before-seen hidden passages traversing these rigid organs in both animals and humans could lead to a rethink of the structure and function of basic skeletal anatomy.

In a new study, researchers in Germany report finding a previously undetected network of fine blood vessels that act like a secret tunnelling system inside bone, helping blood and immune cells spread efficiently and rapidly throughout the body.