2022年经济学人 川大教授开发血小板膜涂层避免了支架排异(2)

搜索

复制

Stents are used by heart surgeons to open up blood vessels¹ that have got clogged².

心脏外科医生可用支架打开堵塞的血管。

They are extremely effective at keeping people alive, but do attract the attention of the immune system, causing inflammation of the tissues around them, which results in scarring.

它们在维持人的生命方面非常有效，但确实会吸引免疫系统的注意，导致周围组织发炎，从而导致疤痕形成。

If enough scar tissue forms, that can itself impede³ blood flow.

如果形成了足够多的疤痕组织，就会阻碍血液流动。

Worse, it can result in part of the scar breaking off and causing a stroke or pulmonary embolism.

更糟糕的是，它可能导致部分疤痕脱落，导致中风或肺血栓。

Over the past two decades, types of stent have been designed that slowly release anti-inflammatory drugs and so reduce these risks.

在过去的二十年里，设计的支架类型可以缓慢释放抗炎药物，从而降低这些风险。

But success is not guaranteed, and the consequences of failure are severe.

但不能保证成功，失败的后果是严重的。

The team coated their experimental stents by dipping them in a solution of dopamine and a substance called sodium⁴ periodate.

研究小组将他们的实验支架浸泡在多巴胺和高碘酸钠溶液中，从而可以在支架上涂上一层。

They then charged the coated stent to an appropriate negative voltage and dropped a suspension of “platelet-derived extracellular vesicles” (small bubbles of membrane⁵ that platelets can be induced to cough up by appropriate treatment) onto it, before incubating it at 37°C for a couple of hours.

然后，他们将涂层支架充电到适当的负电压，并在支架上滴上一层“血小板衍生的细胞外囊泡”(通过适当的处理可以诱导血小板咳出的小膜泡)，然后在37℃下孵育几个小时。

This done, examination with a microscope indicated that the stent was indeed covered in platelet membrane.

显微镜检查表明，支架确实被血小板膜覆盖。

But, to be sure the immune-shielding proteins were still there, the team used two special techniques, immunofluorescence and western blotting⁶, to check for their presence.

但是，为了确保免疫屏蔽蛋白仍然存在，研究小组使用了两种特殊技术--免疫荧光和蛋白质印迹法--来检查它们是否存在。

The acid test, however, was to try out the stents in animals.

然而，关键的测试是在动物身上试验支架。

To that end they picked a group of rabbits and implanted into their abdominal⁷ aortas⁸ stents which had no coating, stents coated only in polydopamine, and stents which had also had platelet membranes⁹ attached to them.

为此，他们挑选了一组兔子，将没有涂层的支架、只涂有聚多巴胺的支架和有血小板膜附着的支架植入它们的腹主动脉。

After eight hours, they removed some of the stents and looked for a build-up of inflammatory cells.

八个小时后，他们取出了一些支架，并寻找炎性细胞的积聚。

They left the rest in place, allowed the animals to recover from the surgery, and then let them go about their lives for a month before killing¹⁰ them and collecting their stents for analysis.

其余的继续保留，让动物从手术中恢复过来，然后让它们继续生活一个月，然后杀死它们，收集它们的支架进行分析。

As expected, even after eight hours, let alone a month, the uncoated and the polydopamine-coated stents were saturated¹¹ in cell growth triggered by immune activity.

正如预期的那样，即使在八个小时后，未涂层支架和多巴胺涂层支架在免疫活动引发的细胞生长中已经饱和，更不用说一个月了。

On both occasions, however, the membrane-coated stents were clean.

然而，在这两种情况下，覆膜支架都是干净的。

Translating this preliminary result in rabbits into a clinical application in human beings will be a hard graft¹², as it were.

可以说，将这一在兔子身上的初步结果转化为对人类的临床应用将是一项艰巨的嫁接。

How long the coating will last remains¹³ unknown.

涂层将持续多长时间尚不清楚。

And rabbits are not people, so the details of their physiologies are different.

兔子不是人，所以它们的生理细节是不同的。

But as a start, Dr Wang’s work is remarkable¹⁴, for it opens a whole, new avenue of investigation¹⁵ into the problem of sustaining medical implants¹⁶.

但首先，王博士的工作成果是显著的，因为它为研究维持医疗植入物的问题开辟了一条全新的途径。

1 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》

2 clogged   

（使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞

参考例句：

• The narrow streets were clogged with traffic. 狭窄的街道上交通堵塞。
• The intake of gasoline was stopped by a clogged fuel line. 汽油的注入由于管道阻塞而停止了。

3 impede   

v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止

参考例句：

• One shouldn't impede other's progress.一个人不应该妨碍他人进步。
• The muddy roads impede our journey.我们的旅游被泥泞的道路阻挠了。

4 sodium   

n.（化）钠

参考例句：

• Out over the town the sodium lights were lit.在外面，全城的钠光灯都亮了。
• Common salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.食盐是钠和氯的复合物。

5 membrane   

n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸

参考例句：

• A vibrating membrane in the ear helps to convey sounds to the brain.耳膜的振动帮助声音传送到大脑。
• A plastic membrane serves as selective diffusion barrier.一层塑料薄膜起着选择性渗透屏障的作用。

6 blotting   

吸墨水纸

参考例句：

• Water will permeate blotting paper. 水能渗透吸水纸。
• One dab with blotting-paper and the ink was dry. 用吸墨纸轻轻按了一下，墨水就乾了。

7 abdominal   

adj.腹（部）的，下腹的；n.腹肌

参考例句：

• The abdominal aorta is normally smaller than the thoracic aorta.腹主动脉一般比胸主动脉小。
• Abdominal tissues sometimes adhere after an operation.手术之后腹部有时会出现粘连。

8 aortas   

n.主动脉；主动脉( aorta的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Aortas with mild, moderate, and severe atherosclerosis, gross. 大动脉轻，中，重度动脉粥样硬化（大体） 来自互联网
• Three aortas are to demonstrate mild, moderate, and severe atherosclerosis from bottom to top. 从下到上依次是轻度、中度、重度动脉粥样硬化病变。 来自互联网

9 membranes   

n.（动物或植物体内的）薄膜( membrane的名词复数 )；隔膜；（可起防水、防风等作用的）膜状物

参考例句：

• The waste material is placed in cells with permeable membranes. 废液置于有渗透膜的槽中。 来自辞典例句
• The sarcoplasmic reticulum is a system of intracellular membranes. 肌浆网属于细胞内膜系统。 来自辞典例句

10 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

11 saturated   

a.饱和的，充满的

参考例句：

• The continuous rain had saturated the soil. 连绵不断的雨把土地淋了个透。
• a saturated solution of sodium chloride 氯化钠饱和溶液

12 graft   

n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接

参考例句：

• I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
• The minister became rich through graft.这位部长透过贪污受贿致富。

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

15 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

16 implants   

n.（植入身体中的）移植物( implant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters. 激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Perhaps the most far-reaching project is an initiative called Living Implants From Engineering (LIFE). 也许最具深远意义的项目，是刚刚启动的建造活体移植工程 (LIFE)。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命