再生医学新发现 菠菜叶能培养人类心肌组织

 　　US scientists have successfully cultivated human heart tissue on spinach¹ leaves, and managed to make it beat for up to three weeks.

　　美国科学家成功在菠菜叶上培育出人体心脏组织，并成功使其跳动长达三周。

　　Bioengineers Glenn Gaudette and Joshua Gershlak at Massachusetts Worcester Polytechnic² Institute (WPI) led this research and their findings are valuable to a deadly medical problem: the lack of donor³ organs.

　　马萨诸塞州伍斯特工学院的生物工程师格伦·高德特和约书亚·格尔谢拉领导的这一研究，他们的发现对一种致命的医疗问题--捐献器官的缺乏是很是有价值的

　　Scientists have long been trying different methods, such as 3-D printing, to create artificial organs. However, so far none of those methods has been successful.

　　长期以来，科学家们试图用3D打印等各种不同方法来制作人造器官，然而，迄今为止这些方法无一成功。

　　One of the big problems in engineering heart muscle is getting blood flow to all of the cells.

　　人工制造心肌的主要问题之一是如何让血液流向所有细胞。

　　再生医学新发现 菠菜叶能培养人类心肌组织

　　Instead of creating minuscule⁴ blood vessels⁵, researchers turned to the material that evolves in nature: spinach leaves, which have vessels that are similar to the blood vessels in a human heart.

　　研究人员并未创建微小血管，而是选择了自然生长的材料：菠菜叶。菠菜叶的叶脉与人体心脏中的血管相似。

　　They used detergent⁶ to wash away spinach cells. Cellulose, which is compatible to mammal cells, and intact leaf veins⁷ were left behind. Therefore, the frame of the leaves was reserved.

　　研究人员用洗涤剂洗去菠菜细胞，留下能与哺乳动物细胞相容的细胞膜质和完整的叶脉。因此叶子的结构得以保留。

　　Then researchers seeded cardiac muscle cells into the vacancy⁸ left by spinach cells and after five days the muscle cells started to beat.

　　之后研究人员将心肌细胞注入菠菜细胞腾出的空隙中，5天后心肌细胞开始跳动。

1 spinach   

n.菠菜

参考例句：

• Eating spinach is supposed to make you strong.据说吃菠菜能使人强壮。
• You should eat such vegetables as carrot,celery and spinach.你应该吃胡萝卜、芹菜和菠菜这类的蔬菜。

2 polytechnic   

adj.各种工艺的，综合技术的；n.工艺(专科)学校；理工(专科)学校

参考例句：

• She was trained as a teacher at Manchester Polytechnic.她在曼彻斯特工艺专科学校就读，准备毕业后做老师。
• When he was 17,Einstein entered the Polytechnic Zurich,Switzerland,where he studied mathematics and physics.17岁时，爱因斯坦进入了瑞士苏黎士的专科学院，学习数学和物理学。

3 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

4 minuscule   

adj.非常小的；极不重要的

参考例句：

• The human race only a minuscule portion of the earth's history.人类只有占有极小部分地球历史。
• As things stand,Hong Kong's renminbi banking system is minuscule.就目前的情况而言，香港的人民币银行体系可谓微不足道。

5 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 detergent   

n.洗涤剂；adj.有洗净力的

参考例句：

• He recommended a new detergent to me.他向我推荐一种新的洗涤剂。
• This detergent can remove stubborn stains.这种去污剂能去除难洗的污渍。

7 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 vacancy   

n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺

参考例句：

• Her going on maternity leave will create a temporary vacancy.她休产假时将会有一个临时空缺。
• The vacancy of her expression made me doubt if she was listening.她茫然的神情让我怀疑她是否在听。