VOA慢速英语2018 干细胞能够帮助瘫痪小白鼠再次行走（在线收听）

Stem Cells Help Paralyzed Mice Walk

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

欢迎收听美国之音慢速英语——健康与生活方式栏目。 

A group of scientists in Israel are researching how to help paralyzed people walk again. They are using human stem cells to repair the spinal cords of mice.

以色列科学家团队正在研究如何帮助瘫痪的人再次行走。他们正在使用人类干细胞来修复老鼠脊髓。

The results sound like a miracle.

实验结果听起来像是一个奇迹。 

The researchers put human stem cells in mice with severed spinal cords. About six weeks after the surgery, some of the mice were able to walk.

研究人员将人类干细胞置于的老鼠断裂的脊髓内。手术后约六周后，部分老鼠能够行走。 

Shulamit Levenberg is a researcher at the Israel Institute of Technology. She explains how she and other researchers were able to create spinal cord recovery.

舒拉米特·利文贝格是以色列理工学院的研究员。她解释了她和其他研究人员如何能够进行脊髓恢复这一过程的。

In this project we managed to induce spinal cord regeneration following complete injury to the spinal cord, and this was to the extent where the animal that was totally paralyzed started to walk again and also regained sensory perception. And this was really amazing – to see the animals walk after two, three weeks.”

“在这个项目中，我们设法在完全受损脊髓上诱导脊髓再生，这就意味着动物在完全瘫痪的情况下能够开始再次行走并重新获得感官知觉。看到瘫痪的动物在两三周后能够再次行走，这简直太棒了。”

The work involved more than simply inserting stem cells in the spinal cord. The research team also built a structure that provided an environment in which the stem cells could attach and grow into support cells.

这项工作不仅仅只是将干细胞嵌入脊髓中。该研究小组为干细胞附着建立了一个支架，提供了一个支持细胞生成的环境。

The spinal cord cannot repair itself. So, this engineered tissue supported neurons in the spinal cords of the mice.

脊髓不能自我修复。因此，这个工程组织在小鼠的脊髓中维持神经元的运作。 

Daniel Offen is a professor at Tel Aviv University. He explains more fully.

丹尼尔·奥芬是特拉维夫大学的教授。他进一步解释说。 

We know that spinal cord cannot recover by itself. So what we tried to do is to take stem cells -- actually we took it from human -- and transplant it inside the spinal cord.

“我们知道脊髓本身进行无法恢复，因此我们试图做的就是采取干细胞（实际上是从人类身上取下来的），然后将其移植到老鼠脊髓内。”

Every year, between 250,000 and 500,000 people around the world suffer a spinal cord injury. Those numbers come from a 2013 report by the World Health Organization.

每年世界各地有25万到50万人的脊髓受伤。这些数据来自世界卫生组织2013年的一份报告中。 

People who suffer spinal cord injuries often receive therapy and different kinds of treatments. However, recovery is difficult and extremely rare.

患脊髓损伤的人经常接受心理治疗和各种各样的药物治疗。但是，恢复是极其困难并且十分罕见。 

But Levenberg says she is hopeful that their research will one day be able to help humans. But, she adds, these are "very early studies."

但利文贝格表示，她希望他们的研究有朝一日能够帮助人类。但是，她补充说，这些实验研究还正处于“初始阶段”。

"The hope is that we will be able to get similar results in humans, meaning that we will be able to see regeneration and we will be able to see some behavioral improvement, but of course these are very early studies and we still do not know how it will work in humans."

“希望我们能够在人类身上也能取得类似的结果，这意味着我们将能够看到再生，并且我们将能够看到行为上的改善，当然，这些研究结果正处在初级阶段，我们仍然不知道它如何在人类身上发挥作用。”

Only about 40 percent of the mice that received the stem cell transplants were able to support weight on their back legs and walk.

接受干细胞移植的老鼠中，只有约40％能够支撑起他们的后腿并能够行走。 

The researchers say their hope is that these kinds of stem cell transplants will one day be a part of every hospital’s procedures.

研究人员表示，他们希望这些干细胞移植有朝一日将成为每家医院手术的一部分。 

Words in This Story

paralyze – v. to make (a person or animal) unable to move or feel all or part of the body : paralyzed – adj.

miracle – n. a very amazing or unusual event, thing, or achievement

induce – v. to cause (something) to happen or exist

regenerate – v. biology : to grow again after being lost, damaged, etc.

perception – n. the way that you notice or understand something using one of your senses

transplant – medical v. : to perform a medical operation in which an organ or other part that has been removed from the body of one person is put into the body of another person : also transplant – medical n. : a medical operation in which an organ or other part is removed from the body of one person and put into the body of another person

therapy – n. the treatment of physical or mental illnesses