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- 2010-2-22
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本帖{zh1}由 xiaobei_1107 于 2010-2-22 09:36 编辑
Printing body parts 打印人体器官
Making a bit of me 略显不同
A machine that prints organs is coming to market 能够打印器官的机器即将上市
Feb 18th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
THE great hope of transplant surgeons is that they will, one day, be able to order replacement body parts on demand. At the moment, a patient may wait months, sometimes years, for an organ from a suitable donor. During that time his condition may worsen. He may even die. The ability to make organs as they are needed would not only relieve suffering but also save lives. And that possibility may be closer with the arrival of the first commercial 3D bio-printer for manufacturing human tissue and organs.
人们对于移植手术所寄予的厚望是有{yt}能够订购到所需的移植器官。而现在，病人可能要为得到合适的捐献器官等上几个月，甚至几年。在等待的这段时间里，病人的病情有可能恶化，甚至出现死亡。如果能够制造出所需的器官，这不仅能够减少病人的痛苦，而且还能挽救病人的生命。随着{dy}台用于制造人体组织和器官的3D生物打印机问世，制造器官的可能性指日可待。
The new machine, which costs around $200,000, has been developed by Organovo, a company in San Diego that specialises in regenerative medicine, and Invetech, an engineering and automation firm in Melbourne, Australia. One of Organovo’s founders, Gabor Forgacs of the University of Missouri, developed the prototype on which the new 3D bio-printer is based. The first production models will soon be delivered to research groups which, like Dr Forgacs’s, are studying ways to produce tissue and organs for repair and replacement. At present much of this work is done by hand or by adapting existing instruments and devices.
这台耗资20万美元的新机器是由圣地亚哥主攻再生机器的Organovo公司和澳大利亚墨尔本主攻工程和自动化的Invetech公司合作研发的。Organovo的创始人之一，密苏里大学的Gabor Forgacs博士发展了3D生物打印机的模型。众多像Forgacs博士这样的研发小组还在苦苦寻找制造用于修复和移植的器官和组织的办法，{dy}批生产模型很快将会送到这些小组那里。研发小组目前大部分工作是靠人工或者机器和仪器来完成的。
To start with, only simple tissues, such as skin, muscle and short stretches of blood vessels, will be made, says Keith Murphy, Organovo’s chief executive, and these will be for research purposes. Mr Murphy says, however, that the company expects that within five years, once clinical trials are complete, the printers will produce blood vessels for use as grafts in bypass surgery. With more research it should be possible to produce bigger, more complex body parts. Because the machines have the ability to make branched tubes, the technology could, for example, be used to create the networks of blood vessels needed to sustain larger printed organs, like kidneys, livers and hearts.
“最初只能制出像皮肤，肌肉，短血管这样简单的人体组织，”Organovo的主管Keith Murphy说，“这些将用于研究。”然而Murphy还指出公司准备在五年内临床试验完成后，打印机将制造出用于在心脏搭桥手术中移植的血管。通过更深入的研究，应该还有可能制造出更大更复杂的人体器官。由于该机器能够制造出支管，因此，举个例子，该技术可用于构建血管网络，以支撑像肾脏，肝脏，心脏这样较大的打印器官。
Printing history “打印”历史
Organovo’s 3D bio-printer works in a similar way to some rapid-prototyping machines used in industry to make parts and mechanically functioning models. These work like inkjet printers, but with a third dimension. Such printers deposit droplets of polymer which fuse together to form a structure. With each pass of the printing heads, the base on which the object is being made moves down a notch. In this way, little by little, the object takes shape. Voids in the structure and complex shapes are supported by printing a “scaffold” of water-soluble material. Once the object is complete, the scaffold is washed away.
Organovo的3D生物打印技术类似于一些工业上用于制造部件以及机械模具的快速建模机器。它们运行起来有点像喷墨打印机，不同的是，它们是在第三维上运行的。聚合物融合后会形成一定结构，继而聚合物的液滴在打印机中沉淀。每当打印机头通过，物体的基本特征将会映在里边的凹槽里。通过这种方法，物体的形状就会逐渐显现出来。结构中的空隙和结构的复杂性是由打印出的水溶性物质支架决定的。一旦物体打印完成，支架将溶解在水中。
Researchers have found that something similar can be done with biological materials. When small clusters of cells are placed next to each other they flow together, fuse and organise themselves. Various techniques are being explored to condition the cells to mature into functioning body parts—for example, “exercising” incipient muscles using small machines.
研究人员发现，一些类似的物质可以与生物物质起作用。当一堆一堆的细胞置在一块时，它们就会自行融合，重新排列，研究人员探索研究各种不同的技术以使细胞发育成功能完善的人体器官，比如，使用小型机器来“锻炼”初生的肌肉。
Though printing organs is new, growing them from scratch on scaffolds has already been done successfully. In 2006 Anthony Atala and his colleagues at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina made new bladders for seven patients. These are still working.
尽管打印器官这一技术还处于初级阶段，但是在支架中培育细胞生长已经取得成功。2006年Anthony Atala和他的同事们在北卡洛莱纳州威克森林再生医学研究所为七位患者成功地造出了膀胱。而且它们现在都表现良好。
Dr Atala’s process starts by taking a tiny sample of tissue from the patient’s own bladder (so that the organ that is grown from it will not be rejected by his immune system). From this he extracts precursor cells that can go on to form the muscle on the outside of the bladder and the specialised cells within it. When more of these cells have been cultured in the laboratory, they are painted onto a biodegradable bladder-shaped scaffold which is warmed to body temperature. The cells then mature and multiply. Six to eight weeks later, the bladder is ready to be put into the patient.
Atala博士的研究过程是，首先从病人膀胱中取出一小块组织作为样品（这样培育出来的器官不会与他自身的免疫系统产生排斥反应）。然后从样品中提取出前体细胞，前体细胞能够在膀胱外围形成肌肉，在膀胱内形成特化细胞。在实验室中培育出更多这样的细胞后，将它们涂在可被生物酶降解的膀胱型支架上，支架应保持人体正常温度。细胞会逐渐成熟并大量繁殖。六到八周后，膀胱就可以植入病人体内了。
The advantage of using a bioprinter is that it eliminates the need for a scaffold, so Dr Atala, too, is experimenting with inkjet technology. The Organovo machine uses stem cells extracted from adult bone marrow and fat as the precursors. These cells can be coaxed into differentiating into many other types of cells by the application of appropriate growth factors. The cells are formed into droplets 100-500 microns in diameter and containing 10,000-30,000 cells each. The droplets retain their shape well and pass easily through the inkjet printing process.
生物打印机的优点是，它不需要使用支架，这样Atala博士也将会使用那个喷墨打印技术来从事它的研究了。Organovo的这种机器使用从成人骨髓中提取的干细胞和脂肪作为前体细胞。通过合适的生长因素，这些细胞可被诱导分化为许多其他种类的细胞。细胞形成直径为100到500微米的液滴，每个液滴中包含1万到3万个细胞。液滴在喷墨打印的过程中形状完好，且打印容易。
A second printing head is used to deposit scaffolding—a sugar-based hydrogel. This does not interfere with the cells or stick to them. Once the printing is complete, the structure is left for a day or two, to allow the droplets to fuse together. For tubular structures, such as blood vessels, the hydrogel is printed in the centre and around the outside of the ring of each cross-section before the cells are added. When the part has matured, the hydrogel is peeled away from the outside and pulled from the centre like a piece of string.
第二个打印头用于沉淀支架----一种糖类的水凝胶。这不会影响细胞的作用或使其固定。打印完成时，这个结构一两天内会使液滴融合在一起。对于像血管这样的管状结构，在细胞加入之前，水凝胶会打印到每个横截面的中心和外围环上。该部分成熟时，外围水凝胶脱落，中心的水凝胶拉长形成线状。
The bio-printers are also capable of using other types of cells and support materials. They could be employed, Mr Murphy suggests, to place liver cells on a pre-built, liver-shaped scaffold or to form layers of lining and connective tissue that would grow into a tooth. The printer fits inside a standard laboratory biosafety cabinet, for sterile operation. Invetech has developed a laser-based calibration system to ensure that both print heads deposit their materials accurately, and a computer-graphics system allows cross-sections of body parts to be designed.
生物打印机同样可以使用其他细胞和相应物质。Murphy指出，它们可以将活体细胞置在要用于培养的活体形状的支架上，或者形成线层和相互联系的组织，进一步形成牙组织。为了在无菌环境中操作，打印机应安装在在标准实验室的生物安全柜中。Nvetech已经开发出一种激光校准系统来保证打印头能xx地沉积材料，另一种计算机图形技术系统可用来设计人体器官的横截面。
Some researchers think machines like this may one day be capable of printing tissues and organs directly into the body. Indeed, Dr Atala is working on one that would scan the contours of the part of a body where a skin graft was needed and then print skin onto it. As for bigger body parts, Dr Forgacs thinks they may take many different forms, at least initially. A man-made biological substitute for a kidney, for instance, need not look like a real one or contain all its features in order to clean waste products from the bloodstream. Those waiting for transplants are unlikely to worry too much about what replacement body parts look like, so long as they work and make them better.
一些研究人员认为，这种机器终有{yt}能够直接打印出人体组织和器官，并送入体内。的确，Atala博士正在研究能够扫描出人体需要植皮部分的轮廓，然后直接将皮肤打印在上边的机器。对于大一些的xxxx，Forgacs博士认为他们可能是不同的，至少在刚开始时是不同形式的。比如，人造肾脏不需要长得和真的一样，或者包含xx血液中废物的所有特性。那些等着移植的病人们不会顾虑移植器官长什么样，只要它们能起作用，使身体状况更好就行。 |
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