Mesentery
organ that attaches the intestines to the posterior abdominal wall, comprises the double fold of the peritoneum
In human anatomy, the mesentery is an organ that attaches the intestines to the posterior abdominal wall, consisting of a double fold of the peritoneum. It helps (among other functions) in storing fat and allowing blood vessels, lymphatics, and nerves to supply the intestines.
The mesocolon (the part of the mesentery that attaches the colon to the abdominal wall) was formerly thought to be a fragmented structure, with all named parts—the ascending, transverse, descending, and sigmoid mesocolons, the mesoappendix, and the mesorectum—separately terminating their insertion into the posterior abdominal wall. However, in 1925, new microscopic and electron microscopic examinations showed the mesocolon to be a single structure derived from the duodenojejunal flexure and extending to the distal mesorectal layer. Thus the mesentery is an internal organ.
Structure
The mesentery of the small intestine arises from the root of the mesentery (or mesenteric root) and is the part connected with the structures in front of the vertebral column. The root is narrow, about 15 cm long, 20 cm in width, and is directed obliquely from the duodenojejunal flexure at the left side of the second lumbar vertebra to the right sacroiliac joint. The root of the mesentery extends from the duodenojejunal flexure to the ileocaecal junction. This section of the small intestine is located centrally in the abdominal cavity and lies behind the transverse colon and the greater omentum.
The mesentery becomes attached to the colon at the gastrointestinal margin and continues as the several regions of the mesocolon.
“Mesentery” enters the record as organ that attaches the intestines to the posterior abdominal wall, comprises the double fold of the peritoneum. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mesentery, organ and attaches can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1135563. The Library of Congress control number is sh85083916. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mesentery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.