Scientists Just Discovered a Previously Unknown Pain-Detecting Organ in Mammals.

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▼ Until now, it was thought that the intense feeling we get from jabbing ourselves on something sharp was detected by exposed nerves in the skin. But scientists have just worked out this pain might actually be sensed by a previously unknown organ.
Researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have identified this unexpected pain detector in mice. They found that many-armed Schwann cells- cells known to protect and support neurons - reach out to each other beneath the outer skin layer (the epidermis) to form a mesh-like network. Meanwhile, their other 'arms' reach up into the epidermis.
Together, along with intertwined pain-detecting nerve cells, these cells work as sensory organ that responds to mechanical pain - such as sharpness, pressure, and burning.

(Abdo et al., Science, 2019)
Above: The position of pain receptive Swann cells (red) and nerve cells (blue) in the skin's dermis (d) and epidermis (e).
To test if the newly identified Schwann cells actually contribute to (▪ ▪ ▪)

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