经济学人22:高龄母亲的福音 45岁也能生娃

 　　Science and Technolgy.

　　科技。

　　reproduction.

　　人类繁衍。

　　Life begins at 45.

　　45岁也能生娃。

　　Hope for older mothers.

　　高龄母亲的福音。

　　WHEN it comes to reproduction, men have it easy. Almost to the end of their lives most have an ample supply of sperm¹. Women are not so lucky. They are born with a supply of eggs that typically runs out when they reach middle age. That could be about to change, however. Researchers have confirmed that women harbour ovarian stem cells, and that these can give rise to new eggs.

　　讲到繁衍，男人表示压力很小。大多数人直到去世前都拥有充足的精子。女人可就没这么幸运了。人到中年，她们就会耗尽出生时携带的卵子。不过，这一情形很快就能得到改变。研究者们证实，女人拥有卵巢干细胞，而这种细胞能成为新的卵细胞的来源。

　　Stem cells have the ability to divide continuously and to change into different types of cells. Stem cells from adults can produce a variety of cell types, in addition to those that make up the tissue in which they are found.

　　干细胞具有不断分裂的潜力，可以分化成许多种类的细胞。成人干细胞不仅可以分化成其来源组织的细胞，还能分化成其它细胞。

　　In 2004 Jonathan Tilly of Harvard Medical School and his colleagues discovered stem cells in mouse ovaries. Since then it has been shown that these ovarian stem cells can develop into eggs, be fertilised and produce perfectly² healthy mouse pups. But researchers have been reluctant to believe that something similar might be possible in humans.

　　2004年，哈弗医学院的Jonathan Tilly及其同事在老鼠卵巢里发现了干细胞。迄今已经证实，此类卵巢干细胞能够分化成为卵细胞，卵细胞在受精后还能发育成健康的鼠宝宝。但是研究者尚不能确信人类也存在类似机能。

　　Proving that this was indeed the case was tricky³. Human ovarian tissue-especially from young, healthy donors-is not easy to come by. Dr Tilly's breakthrough came when he discovered that a former colleague, Yasushi Takai of Saitama Medical University in Japan, had in his freezer healthy ovarian tissue from 30 patients who had changed sex.

　　想要弄清真相有些困难。人类卵巢组织很难找到，健康的年轻捐献者的组织更难寻觅。幸而Tilly博士发现他的前同事——日本埼玉医科大学的Yasushi Takai在冰箱里存放了30个变性人不再需要的健康卵巢组织，取得了突破。

　　Using a sophisticated cell-sorting technique, the researchers developed a way to identify ovarian stem cells that works for both mice and humans. Then they took the human ovarian stem cells, labelled them with a green fluorescent⁴ protein and put them back into a slice of human ovary (grafted onto a living mouse, so that it was functioning much like a normal ovary). The glowing green cells soon produced a brand new crop of human eggs, according to their findings published this week in Nature Medicine.

　　研究人员运用尖端的细胞分选技术，找出方法，证实人类和老鼠身上都存在卵巢干细胞。随后，他们分离出人类卵巢干细胞，用荧光蛋白做上标记再把它植入一片人类卵巢组织。这片组织被移植到了活鼠体内，使其保持正常卵巢的机能。他们本周发表在《自然医学》上的结果称，这些绿芒闪烁的细胞很快制造出了一批人类卵细胞。

　　Offshoring fertilisation.

　　国外受精。

　　Fertilising these eggs for experimentation⁵ is forbidden in America. Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, however, will allow it in certain cases. So next month Dr Tilly will take some of his stem cell booty to Edinburgh to collaborate⁶ with Evelyn Telfer, who has developed a technique for growing human eggs from an early stage. She holds a licence to fertilise them experimentally.

　　美国禁止为实验用的卵细胞受精，不过英国的人类受精和胚胎学管理局将在某些研究中允许给卵细胞授精。所以，下个月Tilly博士将带着卵细胞去爱丁堡与Evelyn Telfer合作。Evelyn Telfer掌握了用卵母细胞培育卵细胞的技术，持有给试验用细胞授精的许可。

　　The discovery could revolutionise infertility⁷ treatment for women in several ways. For one thing, research has shown that in mice, even aged⁸ ovaries contain ovarian stem cells. And when those stem cells are placed into a young ovary, they will develop healthy eggs. This raises the possibility that, one day, women of advanced age could have their own biologically related children. Currently, many women over 45 have to make do with in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) using the egg of a younger woman.

　　这项发现会是女性不育症治疗的一场革命。一方面，老鼠体内衰老的卵巢里也有卵巢干细胞；将这些细胞移植到年轻的卵巢中后，它们能制造健康的卵子。这意味着将来的某天，年龄较大的妇女也能拥有生物学意义上的自己的孩子。目前，许多45岁以上的妇女只能凑合着用年轻女人的卵细胞进行体外受精（IVF）。

　　Other treatments will become available sooner. OvaScience, a fertility company based in Boston which has exclusive rights to exploit Dr Tilly's research on mammalian ovarian stem cells, will begin offering a novel treatment in July. This uses a woman's own stem cells to provide her eggs with extra energy by creating fresh mitochondria-sub-units that exist within cells and supply them with energy. They too can become scarcer and less productive with age. Previous studies have shown that boosting mitochondria can dramatically increase the success rates of IVF. When it comes to reproduction, men will still have it easier for some time. But women are catching⁹ up.

　　另一种疗法也将很快得到应用。波士顿的OvaScience公司独家开发Tilly博士的哺乳动物卵巢干细胞细胞研究。今年7月，该公司将开始提供一种全新的疗法：使用卵巢干细胞制造线粒体（给细胞提供能量的细胞器），给妇女的卵细胞增添活力。线粒体的数量和活力也会随着年龄增长而递减。此前的研究表明，增加线粒体数量能极大提高体外受精的成功率。谈起繁衍来，男人还能优哉游哉一阵子。不过，女人即将迎头赶上。

1 sperm   

n.精子，精液

参考例句：

• Only one sperm fertilises an egg.只有一个精子使卵子受精。
• In human reproduction,one female egg is usually fertilized by one sperm.在人体生殖过程中，一个精子使一个卵子受精。

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

4 fluorescent   

adj.荧光的，发出荧光的

参考例句：

• They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
• This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。

5 experimentation   

n.实验，试验，实验法

参考例句：

• Many people object to experimentation on animals.许多人反对用动物做实验。
• Study and analysis are likely to be far cheaper than experimentation.研究和分析的费用可能要比实验少得多。

6 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。

7 infertility   

n.不肥沃，不毛；不育

参考例句：

• It is the Geneva, Switzerland-based Biotech Company's second recombinant infertility drug. 它是瑞士生物技术公司在日内瓦的公司生产的第二种重组治疗不孕症的药。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术制药疫苗
• Endometritis is a cause of infertility. 子宫内膜炎是不育的原子。 来自辞典例句

8 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

9 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。