VOA慢速英语2012 健康报道 - 产生新卵子的新途径

Health Report - A Way to Make New Eggs in Women?
健康报道 - 产生新卵子的新途径

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
New research could raise hope for women who are having trouble getting pregnant.
新研究可能为不孕女性燃起希望。
For years, the thinking has been that women are born with all the eggs their bodies will ever produce. In fact, this has been the thinking not just about humans but all mammals.
多年来，人们的观点一直以为女性身体产生的卵细胞在出生时就已经决定了。实际上，这种观点包括的不仅是人类，还包括了所有哺乳动物。
Then, in two thousand four, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital reported a surprising discovery. Jonathan Tilly found that adult female mice could produce new eggs.
然后，在2004年，马萨诸塞州总医院研究人员乔纳森·泰利（Jonathan Tilly）报告了一个惊奇的发现。蒂莉发现，成年雌鼠可以产生新的卵子。
Now, Jonathan Tilly has extended his work and reported another discovery -- this time about human females.
目前，泰利已经延续了他的研究并报告了另一项发现，这次是和女性有关。
JONATHAN TILLY: "We've isolated¹, essentially², the female equivalent of the stem cells that we know exist in men that actively³ make new sperm⁴. So having these cells now isolated, I think, opens up a lot of opportunities to consider that we simply couldn't fathom⁵ before."
泰利：“我们基本上已经分离出了女性身体中相当于男性身体产生新精子的干细胞。有了这些分离出来的细胞，我认为开启了许多机会去研究我们以前根本无法理解的东西。”
Stem cells are special kinds of cells. Starting in embryos⁶ just a few days old, they produce the many different cell types and tissues that form the body. In some adult tissues, stem cells produce replacements⁷ for damaged or worn out cells.
干细胞是一种特殊类型的细胞，起源于只有数天的胚胎，它们生成了许多不同类型的细胞和身体组织。在一些长成的组织中，干细胞为损坏或老旧细胞生成替代品。
In his new study, Jonathan Tilly and other researchers removed cells from ovaries. Ovaries are the female reproductive organs that produce eggs. The scientists did laboratory tests to make sure they had the right cells that they were looking for. Then they used what are known as culturing methods to grow the cells so they would divide and produce more cells.
在他的新研究中，泰利和其他研究人员从卵巢中取出细胞。卵巢是女性产生卵子的生殖器官。科学家做了化验以确保他们获得了自己寻找的合适的细胞。然后，他们使用所谓的培养方法培养细胞，这样它们就能分裂和产生更多细胞。
JONATHAN TILLY: "And we could start with perhaps one hundred cells, and over several months' time take those one hundred cells and make hundreds of thousands of cells. And interestingly, we noticed that these cells would spontaneously generate immature⁸ eggs, all on their own, in these cultures."
泰利：“我们可以从100个细胞开始，经过数月时间使它们产生数十万个细胞。有趣的是，我们注意到这些细胞会自发地产生未成熟的卵子，完全依靠自身，在这类培养中。”
The researchers did not stop there. They wanted to further confirm the ability of these cells to make eggs. They placed some of the cells into human ovary tissue. Then they implanted the tissue under the skin of laboratory mice.
研究人员并未止步于此。他们希望进一步确认这些细胞产生卵子的能力。他们将其中一些细胞放入人类卵巢组织。然后将该组织植入实验鼠皮肤下。
The studies found that these human cells were -- in Jonathan Tilly's words -- "more than happy to create brand-new human egg cells." He says growing eggs in the lab could improve the chances for women who are having the process known as in vitro fertilization. With IVF, an egg is fertilized⁹ with sperm in a laboratory, then placed in the woman's uterus to develop.
研究发现，这些人体细胞--用泰利的话来说就是--“更乐意创造全新的人类卵细胞。” 他说，在实验室中培养卵子可以提高正在进行体外受精（即常说的试管婴儿）的女性的（受孕）机会。通过体外受精，卵子在实验室中受精，然后放入女性子宫中生长。
Jonathan Tilly says his work could also lead to fertility treatments that might improve the chances for more traditional fertilization methods.
泰利说，他的工作可能也导致一种提高多数传统受精方式几率的生育治疗。
JONATHAN TILLY: "We can also think about, perhaps, targeting these cells in the ovaries with hormones¹⁰ that these cells like, and thereby¹¹ increasing their activity and perhaps increasing the size of the egg cell reserve in the ovary, when it would be desirable to do so."
泰利：“我们也可以想想，也许，在适当时候，针对这些卵巢中的细胞使用它们喜欢的激素，从而提高其活动能力，并可能增加卵巢中卵细胞的储存规模。”
His paper on making new human eggs from stem cells was published online this week by the journal Nature Medicine. Some experts raised questions about his earlier work with mice. Some are not so sure about this study either, until other researchers can reproduce the findings.
泰利关于从干细胞中制造新人类卵子的论文本周被《自然医学》杂志在网上公布。一些专家就他对小白鼠的早期研究提出了疑问。在有其他研究人员可以重现这一结果之前，一些人对这项研究也还不敢确认。
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Jim Tedder¹².
___
Contributing: Art Chimes

1 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

3 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

4 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。

5 fathom   

v.领悟，彻底了解

参考例句：

• I really couldn't fathom what he was talking about.我真搞不懂他在说些什么。
• What these people hoped to achieve is hard to fathom.这些人希望实现些什么目标难以揣测。

6 embryos   

n.晶胚；胚，胚胎( embryo的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Somatic cells of angiosperms enter a regenerative phase and behave like embryos. 被子植物体细胞进入一个生殖阶段，而且其行为象胚。 来自辞典例句
• Evolution can explain why human embryos look like gilled fishes. 进化论能够解释为什么人类的胚胎看起来象除去了内脏的鱼一样。 来自辞典例句

7 replacements   

n.代替( replacement的名词复数 )；替换的人[物]；替代品；归还

参考例句：

• They infiltrated behind the lines so as to annoy the emery replacements. 他们渗透敌后以便骚扰敌军的调度。 来自辞典例句
• For oil replacements, cheap suddenly looks less of a problem. 对于石油的替代品来说，价格变得无足轻重了。 来自互联网

8 immature   

adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的

参考例句：

• Tony seemed very shallow and immature.托尼看起来好像很肤浅，不夠成熟。
• The birds were in immature plumage.这些鸟儿羽翅未全。

9 Fertilized   

v.施肥( fertilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The study of psychology has recently been widely cross-fertilized by new discoveries in genetics. 心理学研究最近从遗传学的新发现中受益匪浅。
• Flowers are often fertilized by bees as they gather nectar. 花常在蜜蜂采蜜时受粉。

10 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

11 thereby   

adv.因此，从而

参考例句：

• I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
• He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。

12 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网