日本科学家研制成人造皮肤 为烧伤病人带来福音

A paper published this month shows that researchers in Japan have successfully grown fully-functioning mouse skin in a laboratory, from a set of reprogrammed cells.

本月刊登的一篇文章指出，在实验室状态下，日本的研究人员从一组基因重组的细胞中，成功地制成了能够模仿正常组织功能的老鼠皮肤。

Researchers were able to grow the independent sections of mouse skin tissue thanks to an advance from nearly a decade ago, when the scientific community learned how to take young cells and reprogram them to grow into a different kind of cell. In this case, cells from the gums of mice were redirected to become skin cells.

研究人员能够制成独立的老鼠皮肤组织，多亏了近十年前科学界成功提取幼细胞并将其重组成其他种类的细胞。在这种情况下，研究人员通过提取老鼠牙龈细胞，然后把它们转换皮肤细胞。

Skin grafts are a big deal in the world of life-saving technology, as functioning skin is slow to create from grafts, leaving the body vulnerable. Healthy skin produces vitamins, protects the body from infection, and regulates body temperatures. But current graft techniques don't create a solution that can do that immediately.

皮肤移植技术对于挽救生命意义重大，因为移植后，正常的皮肤生长很慢，使身体容易受感染。健康的皮肤能产生维生素，保护身体免受感染，并调节体温。但是，目前的移植技术还不能提供解决方案，立刻做到这一点。

In fact, the "skin" grown in labs for grafting isn't nearly as complex or functional as what you've already got on your body. In many cases it's less like a full organ and more like a top layer, able to literally cover an exposed area, and not much else until the rest of the body regenerates underneath.

其实，以往实验室制成的用作移植的"皮肤"，并不像人体身上的皮肤有那么多复杂的功能。在许多情况下，它并不像一个完整器官，而更像一个表层，能够覆盖住暴露区域，直到身体皮肤下面的其余部分再生。

But this new process is different: The skin is already fully functional on its own, producing everything from hair and oil to sweat, just like normal skin does. That means it's ready to go much faster than the skin that would essentially have to do that growing after grafting—rapidly speeding up the healing process.

但这个新过程是不同的：这种皮肤功能齐全，可生长毛发，分泌油脂和汗液，就像人的正常皮肤一样。这意味着，相比之前的移植后皮肤的生长，这种皮肤能够大大加速愈合过程。

But lab-grown skin doesn't just pose major breakthroughs for burn treatments. Lab-grown, fully functional skin could have another value to the world, as a contributor at Allure pointed out: getting rid of animal testing. That's right—all those animals used for topical testing of medications and cosmetics stand to escape the cages, because fully functioning samples of human cells would be astronomically more effective for testing of those products than furrier animal friends.

实验室培育的皮肤不仅仅对于烧伤治疗是重大突破。这种实验室制成的，功能齐全的皮肤在其他领域也有其价值。美国《魅力》（Allure）杂志指出：不要再局限于动物测试。是的，是这样的——所有用于药物或化妆品测试的动物们都想要逃出牢笼，而相对于有毛的动物朋友来说，用功能齐全的人体细胞样品来测试这些产品，效果要大得多。

Of course both grafting and testing advances are still a few steps down the road. While mice responded well to these skin samples, the technology needs to be adapted for human use. The Washington Post reported that scientists estimate they're 5 to 10 years from actually being able to successfully replicate the process with human skin.

当然，无论是移植还是测试的进展仍还要继续。虽然老鼠们对于这些皮肤的反应令人可喜，但该技术还需适于人类使用。华盛顿邮报报道，科学家估计在5到10年之间能成功将这一技术用于人类皮肤。

For the moment they still have many questions to answer about the mouse-based results, and the process needs to be replicated successfully by other researchers before anyone can start asking how to replicate it with human cells.

就目前而言，基于老鼠试验下的皮肤成果，科学家们还有很多问题需要回答。在开始将其复制到人体细胞上之前，这一过程也需要其他研究者的成功复制，来证明其有效性。

But once it happens, the applications are endless, from better cosmetic surgery results from healthy new tissues, to lifesaving and immediate procedures aiding burn victims that today would likely not stand a chance of survival.

但是，一旦成功，应用是无止境的，不管是更好的美容手术效果和健康的新组织，还是拯救生命，即时帮助烧伤患者(如今的他们可能没有一线生机)。

Suddenly a bodiless, pulsating patch of hairy, oily, sweaty mouse skin in a petri dish doesn't seem so gross.

突然间，培养器皿中那块毛茸茸的、油腻腻，汗湿湿的老鼠皮似乎不那么恶心了。