【经济学人】终极孕育袋 | 2017.04.27 | 总第895期

THESE days, in rich countries, premature birth is the main cause of infant mortality. A baby born at 23 weeks—just over half way through a normal pregnancy—has a fighting chance of survival. But underdeveloped lungs struggle to cope with breathing air. External pumps used to circulate blood impose potentially fatal stresses on tiny hearts. Those that do pull through are often left with lifelong problems that range from brain damage to blindness. In a paper just published in Nature Communications, a team of doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, led by Alan Flake, describe an artificial womb that, they hope, could improve things dramatically, boosting the survival rate of the most premature babies while reducing the chance of lasting disabilities.

现如今，在一些发达国家，早产是造成婴儿死亡的主要原因。一个23周出生的婴儿（仅仅过了正常妊娠期的一半）虽然有一线生机存活，但发育不完全的肺仍然很难正常呼吸。用于帮助血液循环的外部泵会对这脆弱的小心脏上施加上潜在致命的压力。那些熬过这一关的婴儿往往也会落下一些像大脑损伤、失明等终生问题。刚刚发表在Nature Communications杂志上的一篇文章称，在费城儿童医院，由Alan Flake领队的一个医生团队发明了一种人造子宫，他们希望这个人造子宫能够改善现状，提高早产儿的存活率，同时降低终生残疾的可能性。

• Uterus：n.子宫;

• fighting chance：一线生机

• pull through：恢复健康，精神状况转好，情绪转好; 渡;

• premature：adj.过早的; 提前的; 早产的; 草率的;n.早产儿;

The device, which looks a bit like a high - tech jiffy bag , is designed to mimic a real womb as closely as possible (see picture above, of a fetus after 28 days in the artificial womb). The fetus —a lamb in the team’s trials—is surrounded in a substitute for the amniotic fluid that keeps the animal’s lungs filled with liquid in a real uterus. Once the fetus is placed inside the bag it is sealed, to prevent germs entering. The cannulas which carry blood away to be recharged with oxygen and nutrients are inserted into the animal’s umbilical cord , and the tubing in the oxygen-exchange system is short, which lets the researchers dispense with pumps entirely.（读者试译） Instead, they rely on the animal’s own heart to push blood around the system.

这一装置看起来像一个高科技泡沫保护信封，它是尽可能的模仿子宫来设计的（见上图，胎儿在人工子宫28天后）。胎儿（实验中用的是一只羊羔）被羊水的替代品包围，在真正的子宫中，羊水能使动物的肺部充满液体。胎儿被放入袋子后，袋子就会被密封，以防止细菌的进入。（ 期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~） 相反，他们利用动物自己的心脏使血液流通到周围的系统。

• high-tech：n.高科技;

• jiffy bag：n.泡沫保护信封

• fetus：n.胎，胎儿;

• cannulas：套管，插管;

• umbilical cord：脐带

• dispense：vt.分配，分给; 实施，施行; 免除，豁免; 配（药）;vi.特许，豁免;

The results are impressive. The artificial womb kept premature lambs alive for four weeks, which is longer than any previous attempt. (The researchers say they could have carried on for longer still, had their trial protocols not forbidden it.) The lambs developed normally, growing wool and moving around as they would in a natural womb. When Dr Flake’s team subsequently dissected them, they found no evidence of the strokes that sometimes afflict premature babies in conventional incubators.

研究成果是引人注目的。人造子宫使早产的羊羔存活了四周，这比之前任何一次实验中羊羔的存活时间都长。（研究人员表示，如果没有试验方案限制，他们可以让羔羊的存活时间更长）。试验中的羊羔正常发育，像在正常的子宫里一样，也长出了毛发并且四处活动。随后，Flake博士的团队对羊羔进行解剖，他们没有发现任何在传统的孵化器中的早产儿会出现的中风的迹象。

• Dissected：adj.切开的，分割的，（叶子）多裂的;v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的过去式和过去分词 ); 仔细分析或研究;

• Strokes：中风

The aim is to produce a system that could help human babies born at 23 weeks, which is currently the lower limit of viability (between a third and half of such babies survive, and even that requires heroic efforts). It will be a while, though, before the technology arrives in hospitals. For one thing, the parallels between sheep and people are not perfect. Human fetuses at a similar stage of gestation are only about a third of the size of lambs, so the equipment will have to be shrunk commensurately . And any procedure applied to such delicate patients will require a lot of proving before regulators give the go-ahead. Treating mothers at risk of premature birth with steroids , for instance, helps prepare their babies’ lungs for breathing air, and is now routine. But it took more than 20 years of tests and research before that discovery was deemed robust enough to make its way into hospitals.

其目的是建立一个可以救助在23周出生的婴儿的系统，23周是目前存活的下限（即使再努力的进行救治，也仅有三分之一到二分之一的婴儿存活）。这一技术还需一段时间才能应用在医院。一方面，因为羊与人类之间的相似度不够。在相同的妊娠期阶段，人类胎儿的大小只有羊羔胎儿的三分之一，因此要同比例的缩小设备。在监管机构批准之前，任何应用于此类非常脆弱的患者的医药治理程序都需进行大量的实验验证。举例来说，现在用类固醇治疗有早产风险的目前是常用的医药治疗手段，这有助于让他们孩子的肺部适应呼吸空气。但是科学家却花了20年多的时间对类固醇进行测试和研究，最终才确认该项医学发现足够安全，可以在医院使用。

• Viability：n.生存能力，发育能力; 生活力;

• Gestation：n.怀孕; 怀孕期; （思想、主意等的）构思、酝酿; 孕育（过程）;

• Commensurately：相应的

• Steroids：n.类固醇( steroid的名词复数 );

翻译 ▍ 上善若水，Sopia.yao

审核 ▍ 云图

图文编辑 ▍澜意

责任编辑 ▍毛毛