科技动态:人造天然角膜甚至能制造泪水?

Scientists in this laboratory in Sweden have made a medical breakthrough by cultivating artificial corneas they are able to store visions to millions of people in need of transplant in face of the risk of going blind. The biosynthetic cornea developed in Canada and Sweden looks like a contact lens. Eye surgeon May Griffith explains how it made.

瑞典一科学实验室内的科学家们在人工角膜领域有了新突破。这将为几百万等待角膜移植，可能失明的患者带来了光明。这种在加拿大和瑞典的人工合成角膜看上去就像隐形眼镜一样。眼科医生May Griffith将向我们做详细解释。

"We started with the recombinant human collagen, so the first thing that was done was the scientist at Fibrogen, genetically¹ engineered yeast². They took human DNA³, put it into yeast cells, and got the yeast cells to produce this human protein. What we then did was take this protein chemically treated, put into molds and the result is a transparent⁴ contact lens looking like cornea. "

“我们从重组人体胶原蛋白开始，所以首先纤维蛋白原方面和基因工程方面的专家制作酵母，他们提取人类DNA，将DNA注入酵母细胞中，使酵母细胞生产人类蛋白质。我们接下来要做的就是将这些蛋白质进行化学处理，注入霉菌，结果就生成了看上去像隐形眼镜的透明人工角膜。”

The procedure involves of removing the damage cornea which covers the iris⁵ of the people, and replace it with an artificial film-like one. The cornea itself is made from protein collagen, and reflects light allowing the retina to focus. The operation was carried out on 10 patients, and up until now, their sight has improved.

患者需要手术移除虹膜上受损的角膜，并换上人工角膜。这种新型的人工角膜由蛋白质组成，质地轻盈，使虹膜能够自由聚焦。已经有10名患者接受了这种手术，截止到现在，他们的视力有了显著提高。

This was a test designed primarily to look at the safety of implanting biomaterial into patients. But we were very surprised and very happy for the results we got. Because the results show that six out of ten patients could now see things about four times further away than they could before the operation. And when we put hard contact lens on all ten patients, the vision in all ten patients was improved.

这项实验的初衷是检验向病人植入人造角膜的安全性。但结果让我们惊讶并且十分兴奋。结果显示10名接受手术的患者中，六名患者可以看清以前视力所及距离的四倍以外的物体。而所有接受手术的10名患者的视力都有了很大改善。

The patients were monitored from 2 years, and doctor said 90% of the cases the tissue grew back completely joining together with the implant⁶. Doctors said that there haven't been any adverse⁷ effects and the artificial cornea was mimicking⁸ a natural one with patients producing tears.

接受治疗的患者将会被观察两年，医生表示，90%的患者的眼部组织和植入的人造角膜完全愈合。医生还说，人造角膜不仅没有副作用，并且还能仿照天然角膜制造泪水。

Corneal disease affects millions of people around the world, and the number of transplants carried out limited due to a shortage of donors⁹. The second and third phase of the test still needs to be carried out and medics say it will be another five years until the eye opening procedure will be performed at hospitals.

角膜类疾病困扰着全世界几百万人口，大批患者等待角膜移植，而捐献者及其有限。人造角膜的第二第三阶段实验仍需实施，相关的医学工作者表示，人造角膜应用于临床还需要至少五年。

Basmah Fahim, Reuters.

Basmah Fahim，路透社消息。

recombinant n. 重组；[生]重组体

collagen n. (骨)胶原(蛋白)；成胶质

yeast cells n.酵母细胞；酵母菌

iris n. 虹膜

1 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

2 yeast   

n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫

参考例句：

• Yeast can be used in making beer and bread.酵母可用于酿啤酒和发面包。
• The yeast began to work.酵母开始发酵。

3 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

4 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

5 iris   

n.虹膜，彩虹

参考例句：

• The opening of the iris is called the pupil.虹膜的开口处叫做瞳孔。
• This incredible human eye,complete with retina and iris,can be found in the Maldives.又是在马尔代夫，有这样一只难以置信的眼睛，连视网膜和虹膜都刻画齐全了。

6 implant   

vt.注入，植入，灌输

参考例句：

• A good teacher should implant high ideals in children.好教师应该把高尚理想灌输给孩子们。
• The operation to implant the artificial heart took two hours.人工心脏植入手术花费了两小时。

7 adverse   

adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的

参考例句：

• He is adverse to going abroad.他反对出国。
• The improper use of medicine could lead to severe adverse reactions.用药不当会产生严重的不良反应。

8 mimicking   

v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的现在分词 )；酷似

参考例句：

• She's always mimicking the teachers. 她总喜欢模仿老师的言谈举止。
• The boy made us all laugh by mimicking the teacher's voice. 这男孩模仿老师的声音，逗得我们大家都笑了。 来自辞典例句

9 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》