VOA慢速英语2018 科学家首次在实验室培育出完全成熟的人类卵子（在线收听）

Scientists Grow First Fully Developed Human Eggs in Laboratory

For the first time ever, scientists have succeeded in growing human eggs from the earliest stages to full maturity in a laboratory.

科学家们有史以来首次在实验室将人类卵子从最初阶段培育到完全成熟。

Before now, scientists had only succeeded in doing so with the eggs of mice, maturing those eggs to the stage where they produced living babies. They had also grown human eggs from a later stage of development.

在此之前，科学家们只能用老鼠的卵子成功实现这一点。他们让老鼠的卵子成熟到孕育阶段。科学家们也曾经培育过后期阶段的人类卵子。

Scientists at two research hospitals in Edinburgh, Scotland and the Center for Human Reproduction in New York completed this latest experiment. They published the results of their research in the journal Molecular Human Reproduction in early February.

苏格兰爱丁堡市两家研究医院和纽约人类生殖中心的科学家们完成了这项最新的实验。他们将研究成果发表在2月初的《人类生殖》杂志上。

They said this research could one day help in developing medicines and new treatments for people who are unable to produce children.

他们表示，这项研究有一天能有助于开发出针对不孕不育患者的药物和治疗方法。

Normally, microscopic eggs develop in the part of the female reproductive system called ovaries. However, this is the first time human eggs have been developed outside the human body from their earliest stage to full maturity.

通常，微小的卵子在雌性生殖系统的卵巢中孕育。然而，这是人类卵子首次在人体外从最初阶段发育到完全成熟阶段。

Evelyn Telfer is a co-leader of the research. She told the Reuters news service, “Being able to fully develop human eggs in the [laboratory] could widen the scope of available fertility treatments. We are now working on optimizing the conditions that support egg development in this way and studying how healthy they are.”

Evelyn Telfer是这项研究的联合负责人。她对路透社记者表示：“能够在实验室中培育成熟人类卵子可以扩大现有生殖治疗的范围。我们正在努力优化这种支持卵子发育的条件，并研究它们的健康程度。”

Independent experts not directly involved in this work supported it by calling it important. But they also warned that there is much more to do before laboratory-grown human eggs could be safely made ready for reproduction with sperm.

未直接参与这项工作的独立专家对这项研究很支持，称它非常重要。但他们也警告说，在实验室培育的人类卵子可以安全地同精子繁殖之前还有很多工作要做。

Ali Abbara is a medical expert at Imperial College London. He said this latest research suggests it may be possible to fully combine human eggs and sperm outside the body in the future.

Ali Abbara是伦敦帝国学院的一名医学专家。他说，这项最新研究表明，将来也许有可能在体外实现人类卵子和精子的结合。

“[But] the technology remains at an early stage,” he added. “And much more work is needed to make sure that the technique is safe and optimized before we ascertain whether these eggs remain normal during the process, and can…form embryos that could lead to healthy babies.”

“但这项技术仍处于早期阶段，”他补充说，“我们还需要做更多工作来确保这项技术的安全和完善，在此之后，我们才能弄清这些卵子在发育过程中是否能保持正常，能够形成孕育健康生命的胚胎。”

Darren Griffin is a genetics professor at Kent University in the United Kingdom. He called the work a surprising technical success. If success and safety rates were improved, it could help future cancer patients receiving chemotherapy treatment protect their fertility, said Griffin. It could also improve fertility treatments, and deepen scientific understanding of the biology of the earliest stages of human life.

Darren Griffin是英国肯特大学的遗传学教授。他称这项工作是一项惊人的技术成功。如果成功率和安全率得到改善，它可以帮助未来接受化疗的癌症患者保护他们的生育能力。它还能改进生殖治疗，深化人们对人类生命最早期阶段生物学的科学认知。

I’m Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

maturity – n. the state of being fully developed in the body or the mind

journal – n. a magazine that reports on things of special interest to a particular group of people

ovaries – n. the organs in women and female animals that produce eggs and female hormones

scope – n. space or opportunity for action and thought

fertility – n. the ability to produce young

optimizing – v. making something as good or as effective as possible

sperm – n. a cell that is produced by the male sexual organs and that combines with the female's egg in reproduction

technique – n. a way of doing something by using special knowledge or skill

ascertain – v. to learn or find out something, such as information or the truth

chemotherapy – n. the use of chemicals to treat or control a disease, such as cancer