外刊双语：实验室制造的红细胞有利于治疗罕见血型病？

原文标题：
Medicine
Blood not so simple
Red cells made in a laboratory have been infused into people
医学
血液没那么简单
实验室制造的红细胞已注入人体
 
The result will be a boon for patients with rare blood types
研究成果将有利于罕见血型的患者

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UNTIL THE1940s, blood transfusions often went wrong because some of the main blood-group systems, such as the Rhesus factor, had yet to be discovered.
在20世纪40年代以前，由于一些主要的血型系统(比如恒河猴因子)未被发现，因此那时输血经常出现问题。

 
This hit or miss approach to matching donors with recipients is now a thing of the past, as tests for all sorts of characteristics of an individual’s blood have become available.
现在验血可检测出不同的血型，所以那种将献血者与接受者进行随机匹配的方式也已不复存在。
 
But finding a well-matched donor can still be difficult.
但找到一个匹配的捐赠者仍困难重重。
 
Some patients have blood types so rare that there may be but a handful of appropriate donors in the country where they live.
有些患者的血型非常罕见，在他们居住的国家可能只有少数血型相匹配的献血者。
 

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On November 7th a consortium of researchers at several British institutions, co-ordinated by NHS Blood and Transplant, a government health authority, and Bristol University, announced a step towards solving this problem.
11月7日，在英国卫生部门NHS血液与移植科和布里斯托大学的协作下，一个由几家英国机构的研究人员组成的联盟宣布了解决这一问题的新举措。
 
They have successfully transfused into two healthy volunteers red blood cells grown from appropriate stem cells donated by others.

他们已经成功地将干细胞（由他人捐献且血型匹配）培养而成的红细胞注入两名健康志愿者体内。

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Until now, such manufactured red cells had been given only to those whose own stem cells had been the source.
目前为止，这种人造红细胞只提供给那些本身具备干细胞源的人。
 
The stem cells used for this experiment, however,were extracted from blood donated in the normal way.
然而，用于该实验的干细胞是从正常捐献的血液中提取的。
 
The researchers mixed into this donated blood magnetic beads armed with proteins that stick specifically to the stem cells in question, binding them to the bead.
研究人员在捐献的血液磁珠中混合了蛋白质，这些蛋白质专门粘附在相关干细胞上，将干细胞与磁珠结合在一起。
 
The beads, replete with their cellular cargo, are then easily collected.
这些充满细胞物质的珠子很容易收集。
 
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That done, the harvested stem cells were grown and multiplied in a nutrient solution for between 18 and 21 days, which served to turn them into young versions of red blood cells known as reticulocytes.
完成这些工作后，收集的干细胞在营养液中生长和繁殖18到21天，这有助于将它们转变为年轻版本的红细胞，即网织红细胞。
 
Once transfused, reticulocytes quickly develop into the real McCoy.
一旦输血，网织红细胞就会迅速发展成真正的细胞。
 
This approach would increase the value of batches of rare blood—which could, once plundered of stem cells, also be used in the normal way.
这种方法将增加稀有血型的价值，这些稀有血型即使被掠夺了干细胞，也可以正常使用。
 
Moreover, being newly minted, lab-made red blood cells would be expected to last longer in a recipient’s body than those from a normal transfusion, since transfused blood inevitably contains a fair proportion of cells that are on their last legs.
此外，由于实验室制造的红细胞是新制造的，输血的血液中又不可避免地含有相当比例的垂死细胞，所以预计新造红细胞在受者体内的存活时间比正常输血的红细胞要长。
 
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The next step is to measure just how long the manufactured cells actually do last.
下一步就是测量人造红细胞的寿命有多长。
 
To that end, they have been tagged with a special radioactive dye commonly used in medicine to track things around the body.
为此，他们被标记上了一种特殊的放射性染料。这种染料在医学上通常用作追踪在全身移动的物质。 
If they do indeed outlive conventionally transfused cells, as the researchers hope and preclinical studies suggest they will, then recipients will not need such frequent transfusions.
如果它们确实像研究人员所希望的和临床前研究所表明的那样，比传统输血的细胞寿命更长，那么受者就不需要如此频繁的输血了。
 
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That will help a lot.
这将解决很多问题。
 
At the moment, patients with blood disorders such as sickle-cell disease and thalassaemia may require a transfusion as often as every four to six weeks.
目前，镰状细胞病和地中海贫血等血液疾病的患者可能需要每4到6周输血一次。
 
As a consequence, some develop iron overload, which causes severe complications.
因此，一些人会出现铁元素过量，导致严重的并发症。
 
Others end up forming antibodies against many blood types, which makes finding a matching donor harder.
而另一些人体内最终会形成针对多种血型的抗体，这种情况更难找到血型匹配的捐献者。
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If all goes well, the trial will be extended to include at least ten healthy volunteers.
如果一切进展顺利，试验将扩展到10名及以上健康志愿者的身上。
 
But that is only the beginning.
但这仅仅是个开始。
 
Larger tests, including tests on actual patients, will be needed before this approach can be put into practice.
在这种方法投入实践之前，还需要进行更大规模的试验，包括在实际患者身上进行的试验。
 
That will take time, for it normally requires between five and 15 years to introduce a new medical treatment.
这需要时间，引入一种新的医疗方法通常需要5到15年的时间。
 
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Even then, the technique will probably be reserved for a favoured few—those possessing extremely rare blood types being at the head of the queue.

即投入实践，这项技术也将只适用于少数人，如血型罕见的人。

 
Unless some unforeseen breakthrough occurs, making the cells in quantity will be challenging.
除非出现一些未知的重大突破，否则大量生产这种细胞不太现实。

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At the moment, harvested stem cells eventually exhaust themselves, so the number of red cells a donation can yield is limited.
目前，收获的干细胞最终会耗尽自己，因此捐赠所产生的红细胞数量有限。
 
And manufacturing is a cottage industry.
人造细胞并未规模化生产。
 
Producing a batch of reticulocytes requires 24 litres of nutrient solution to generate a tablespoon or two of product.
24升的营养液才能生产一到两小勺的网织红细胞。
 
The cost of scaling this up is unknown, but will probably be far more than the £145 ($166) that a normal blood donation currently costs in Britain.
扩大规模的成本尚不清楚，但可能远远超过英国目前一次正常献血的成本145英镑(166美元)。
 
It may eventually be possible to make the stuff in bulk.But for now, human blood donors will continue to be extremely welcome.

未来也有可能大批量生产红细胞。不过目前而言，人类献血者更受欢迎。

 
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量630左右）
原文出自：2022年11月12日《The Economist》Science&technology版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Maree

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
Rh因子，即恒河猴因子（Rhesus Factor）也被读作Rh抗原，因与恒河猴红血球上的抗原相同得名，最初于1940年被发现。根据人体血液红细胞上Rh因子的有无，可以区分Rh阴性和Rh阳性两种血型，这种血型系统成为Rh血型系统。其临床意义仅次于ABO血型系统。
 
Reticulocyte网织红细胞是尚未完全成熟的红细胞，在周围血液中的数值可反映骨髓红细胞的生成功能，因而对血液病的诊断和治疗反应的观察均有其重要意义。骨髓中红细胞系统的增生发育过程是：多能干细胞→单能干细胞→原始红细胞→早幼红细胞→中幼红细胞→晚幼红细胞→网织红细胞→成熟红细胞。

【重点句子】（3 个）
They have successfully transfused into two healthy volunteers red blood cells grown from appropriate stem cells donated by others.
他们已经成功地将干细胞（由他人捐献且血型匹配）培养而成的红细胞注入两名健康志愿者体内。
 
Even then, the technique will probably be reserved for a favoured few—those possessing extremely rare blood types being at the head of the queue.
即投入实践，这项技术也将只适用于少数人，如血型罕见的人。
 
It may eventually be possible to make the stuff in bulk. But for now, human blood donors will continue to be extremely welcome.
未来也有可能大批量生产红细胞。不过目前而言，人类献血者更受欢迎。