雙語閱讀：研究人員將測試給人移植豬皮
In the future, we may not need to rely on human donations for life-saving skin grafts.
That’s the goal of XenoTherapeutics, a Boston-based biotech nonprofit. Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the group’s initial application for temporary skin grafts curated from genetically modified pigs. This means that they can start testing pig skin grafts on people who have experienced severe burns. It’s the first time that an animal organ has been cleared for human testing in the US.
這就是總部設在波士頓的非營利性生物科技企業塞諾移植治療公司的目標。上週，美國食品和藥物管理局批准了該公司使用基因改良豬的皮作爲臨時移植皮膚的初步申請。這意味着，他們可以開始對嚴重燒傷者進行豬皮移植測試。這也是美國首次批准用動物器官進行人體測試。
Skin, the body’s largest organ, plays a crucial role in the immune system by blocking pathogens from reaching our vulnerable internal organs. It also holds in water, electrolytes, and other nutrients, and helps the body maintain a constant temperature. People with severe skin damage are at a high risk of developing deadly infections or organ failure as a result of changes in temperature or hydration.
皮膚是人體最大的器官，可阻止病原體侵入人體脆弱的體內器官，因此在免疫系統中發揮着至關重要的作用。此外，皮膚可鎖住水分、電解質及其他營養物質，還可幫助人體保持體溫穩定。皮膚嚴重受損者因體溫或水合狀態的改變而患致命性感染或器官衰竭的風險很高。
Skin grafts can help protect these patients as they heal. At the moment, the only skin grafts available in the US come from cadavers who have agreed to be organ donors, or patients who have undergone surgery to remove excess skin after dramatic weight loss. These human skin used for grafts are a “rare commodity.”
移植皮膚可在患者痊癒過程中對患者加以保護。當前，在美國獲取移植皮膚的唯一途徑是使用同意捐獻器官者死後留下的皮膚，或因體重嚴重下降做多餘皮膚去除術的患者皮膚。用於移植的人類皮膚可謂是“稀缺商品”。
XenoTherapeutics, which gets its name from xenotransplantation, or animal-to-human transplants, has bred pigs that have skin remarkably similar to our own. Although pig skin normally produces a type of sugar human skin does not, these pigs have been genetically modified not to make it. Grafts from these pigs are therefore more likely to slide under the radar of the host’s immune system—at least temporarily. The idea is that they could be used for immediate burn treatment, followed human skin graft treatment later.
塞諾移植治療公司的英語名就源自異種器官移植概念——即把動物器官移植給人體。該公司飼養的豬，其豬皮與我們人類的皮膚極爲相似。豬皮一般會生成一種糖而人皮則不會，爲了使這些豬不生成這種糖，該公司對這些豬實施了基因改良。這樣一來，這些豬皮通過接受移植者免疫系統監測的可能性就更高了——至少短期內可以通過。這些豬皮可被用於緊急燒傷處理，之後再進行人皮移植。
“I would venture that if we did a Coke and Pepsi side-by-side comparison… you’d be hard-pressed to tell which was the human cadaveric allograft versus [the pig graft],” said XenoTherapeutics CEO Paul Holzer.
塞諾移植治療公司首席執行官保羅·霍爾澤說：“我敢說，這就像你把可口可樂和百事可樂放在一起進行對比，你很難分得清哪個是源自人類屍體的同種異體移植皮膚，哪個是移植豬皮。”
The nonprofit has been working closely with physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, who will help conduct the clinical trials starting next month. The first trial will only be testing the grafts’ safety and tolerability in six patients with severe burns. Assuming the results are positive after a month, the grafts will need to undergo two more stages of testing before they can be approved for widespread clinical use.
這家非營利性企業一直在與馬薩諸塞綜合醫院的醫生們進行緊密合作，這所醫院將從下月起協助進行臨牀實驗。首次臨牀實驗將只在6名嚴重燒傷者身上測試移植的安全性以及耐受性。假設一個月後臨牀實驗結果是積極的，移植工作還要進行兩個階段的測試，而後纔可獲批推廣到臨牀使用。
Several other groups around the world are working to make animal organs suitable for clinical medicine. In Brazil, researchers are exploring using tilapia skin for use as temporary bandages for burn victims whose skin is regrowing. Just last week, scientists from Germany reported that they had made a crucial step in keeping baboons given genetically modified pig hearts alive for half a year. Their success suggests that pig hearts could one day be used to treat patients with heart failure.
除塞諾移植治療公司外，目前全球還有多個團體在研究將動物器官適用於臨牀醫學。例如在巴西，研究人員正在研究用羅非魚的魚皮作爲正在重新長出皮膚的燒傷者的臨時綁帶。而就在上週，多位德國科學家報告稱他們也邁出重要一步，成功地讓接受基因改良豬心臟移植的狒狒存活了半年時間。這表明豬心臟未來將可能被用來治療心衰患者。