机器现在可以使肝脏在体外保持存活一周

StephenW

A machine can now keep livers alive outside the body for a week

The news: A machine has been developed that can keep human livers alive for seven days. It also seems to help improve the quality of the livers.

How it works: The machine recreates a level of pressure similar to inside the body, and pumps oxygen, blood and nutrients to the livers, while removing cell waste products like carbon dioxide. The amounts of nutrients, blood and oxygen are automatically adjusted by algorithms, meaning the machine doesn’t require constant supervision, according to the study in Nature Biotechnology.

On to humans: The team from the University of Zurich in Switzerland has been developing the machine for four years, experimenting using pig livers. For the latest test the researchers used 10 human livers that were too damaged for transplant. Six of the livers survived, and seemed to be healthier, with lower levels of compounds linked to injury.

The potential: Livers can currently only be stored for up to 24 hours on ice before transplant, so a machine that can keep them alive for a week could allow many more people to get transplants. There are about 17,000 people waiting for a liver in the US right now, with an average waiting time of almost a year.

Next steps: However, the researchers behind this latest invention still have some way to go to prove it can work in practice, and that livers stored this way would be safe when transplanted patients.

StephenW

机器现在可以使肝脏在体外保持存活一周
正在进行移植的医生

新闻：已经开发出一种可以使人类肝脏存活7天的机器。它也似乎有助于改善肝脏的质量。

工作原理：该设备可产生与体内相似的压力水平，将氧气，血液和营养物质泵送到肝脏，同时清除细胞废物如二氧化碳。根据Nature Biotechnology的研究，营养素，血液和氧气的量通过算法自动调整，这意味着该机器不需要持续的监督。

对人类的影响：瑞士苏黎世大学的团队已经使用猪肝进行了四年的研发。对于最新的测试，研究人员使用了10个受损严重的肝，无法移植。六个肝脏得以幸存，而且看起来更健康，与损伤相关的化合物含量较低。

潜力：目前，肝脏只能在移植前在冰上保存24小时，因此一台可使肝脏存活一周的机器可以让更多的人进行移植。目前，美国大约有17,000人在等待肝脏，平均等待时间接近一年。

下一步：然而，这项最新发明的研究人员仍然有路要走去证明它可以在实践中发挥作用，并且以这种方式储存的肝脏在移植患者时将是安全的。