Para-aortic & mesenteric lymph nodes

Looks like

Chains of small beans along the aorta and the gut vessels, deep in the belly.

What it does

Filter lymph from the gut and legs and hold immune cells.

Keeping it well

Nothing day to day; they swell with infection and with cancers that spread.

Its parts

• Visceral abdominal lymph nodes
• Parietal abdominal lymph nodes

Related conditions

• Testicular cancer