美国国家公共电台 NPR Scientists One Step Closer To 3-D-Printed Ovaries To Treat Infertility

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Three-D printers are being used these days to make all kinds of things - jewelry¹, artwork, or even guns. Now, scientists have used a 3-D printer to create a functioning mouse ovary. Yes. NPR's Rob Stein explains.

ROB STEIN, BYLINE²: So you're probably thinking, why in the world would anyone want to use a 3-D printer to print an ovary? Well, Teresa Woodruff at Northwestern University says, there's a really good reason.

TERESA WOODRUFF: My work has been on trying to preserve and restore fertility to young cancer patients who will survive their cancer treatment. But oftentimes, that same life-preserving treatment can be fertility threatening.

STEIN: The chemotherapy that saves their lives destroys their ovaries, leaving them infertile³. So Woodruff decided⁴ to see if she could use a 3-D printer to help them.

WOODRUFF: It's just like the 3-D printers people even have in their homes, but the ink in this case is a biological ink. It's called gelatin.

STEIN: Which is a naturally occurring substance that helps form the skeletons of organs. The 3-D printer squirts out the gelatin ink in very precise patterns, one layer on top of another, to create a complex three-dimensional structure.

WOODRUFF: And so we are able to use 3-D printing to actually lay down a scaffold that was copying what we knew the scaffold looked like of the normal ovary.

STEIN: It's about the size of an eraser at the end of a pencil. Next, they put tissue known as follicles inside the scaffolds. Follicles contain eggs and are surrounded by cells that pump out hormones⁵ necessary for reproduction. Woodruff calls it a bio prosthetic.

WOODRUFF: And the bio prosthetic was then transplanted into a mouse that had been sterilized⁶. And now, that tissue could produce the hormones, estrogens and progesterones. And when we mated that animal, the follicles were functional⁷. They ovulated, released an egg, and we had live, healthy offspring.

STEIN: In the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report that 3 out of 7 mice that got these printed ovaries had healthy pups.

WOODRUFF: Well, our goal is to be able to develop these ovarian bio prosthetics for our cancer patients who have lost ovarian function.

STEIN: By removing some of their follicles before they get treated, putting them into bigger ovary scaffolds printed on 3-D printers, and then transplanting them into women when they're done with their chemo.

WOODRUFF: I think that it's really the holy grail of bioengineering for regenerative medicine.

STEIN: Other experts agree.

KUTLUK OKTAY: I found this paper very exciting.

STEIN: Kutluk Oktay specializes in this kind of research at New York Medical College. He says, a lot more research is needed to know whether this sort of thing could work in humans, but he's optimistic.

OKTAY: I think it does open a new avenue in the area of reproductive biology and fertility.

STEIN: Woodruff has already started trying to create human ovaries this way and hopes to start testing a 3-D printed human ovary within a couple of years. Rob Stein, NPR News.

1 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 infertile   

adj.不孕的；不肥沃的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• Plants can't grow well in the infertile land.在贫瘠的土地上庄稼长不好。
• Nobody is willing to till this infertile land.这块薄田没有人愿意耕种。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 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。

6 sterilized   

v.消毒( sterilize的过去式和过去分词 )；使无菌；使失去生育能力；使绝育

参考例句：

• My wife was sterilized after the birth of her fourth child. 我妻子生完第4个孩子后做了绝育手术。 来自辞典例句
• All surgical instruments must be sterilized before use. 所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。 来自辞典例句

7 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。