VOA慢速英语20060614a

HEALTH REPORT - Growing Replacement¹ Organs From Patients' Own CellsBy Caty Weaver²

Broadcast: 2006骞?鏈?4鏃?

This is Shep O'Neal with the VOA Special English Health Report.


Dr. Anthony Atala

Around the world, there is a shortage of replacement organs. Some doctors see a possible solution: growing new organs from patients' own cells. Doctor Anthony Atala is director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

He and other doctors recently described an experimental treatment with seven young people who had diseased bladders. They received new bladders grown from their own cells. The report appeared in the Lancet.

The seven children and teenagers were born with incomplete closure of the backbone³. This disorder⁴ affected⁵ their bladder, the small organ that stores the body's liquid wastes. High pressure from bladder disease can damage the kidneys. Also, their bladders leaked urine, as often as every thirty minutes.

Doctor Atala began work on engineering bladders in nineteen ninety. Nine years later, he operated on the first patient. The seven patients were ages four to nineteen. At the time, he directed a tissue engineering program at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts.

For a century doctors have used tissue from the intestines⁶ to repair bladders. But problems are common with this method.

The engineered organs are grown from bladder cells and muscle cells taken from the patient. Through the process of culturing, the cells divide and grow in the laboratory.

The cells are placed on a structural⁷ form shaped like a bladder. Cells are placed on top of cells on top of other cells. Doctor Atala compares the process to making a layer cake.

The bladder is then warmed. The cells continue to grow until the new organ is ready. Doctors then remove part of the diseased bladder and attach the new one, still connected to the structure. The form is made of material that breaks down in the body.

The body can reject tissue that comes from another person. In this case, since it grew from the patients' own cells, there was no risk of rejection⁸.

The complete process takes about two months. The doctors reported that the engineered bladders have worked well. The seven patients must empty them through a tube. But the leakage⁹ problem improved and, most importantly, the dangerous pressure eased.

In his laboratory, Doctor Atala is now working to grow twenty different kinds of tissues and organs, including hearts.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Caty Weaver. Read and listen to our reports at www.unsv.com. This is Shep O'Neal.

1 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

2 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

3 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。

4 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 intestines   

n.肠( intestine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Perhaps the most serious problems occur in the stomach and intestines. 最严重的问题或许出现在胃和肠里。 来自辞典例句
• The traps of carnivorous plants function a little like the stomachs and small intestines of animals. 食肉植物的捕蝇器起着动物的胃和小肠的作用。 来自辞典例句

7 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

8 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

9 leakage   

n.漏，泄漏；泄漏物；漏出量

参考例句：

• Large areas of land have been contaminated by the leakage from the nuclear reactor.大片地区都被核反应堆的泄漏物污染了。
• The continuing leakage is the result of the long crack in the pipe.这根管子上的那一条裂缝致使渗漏不断。