科学家们可能已经找到了一种提高身体自愈能力的方法

科学家们可能已经找到了一种提高身体自愈能力的方法

It’s not just Wolverine that has the ability to rebuild and restore wounded tissue. In fact, we all have a quite remarkable capacity to heal when we suffer an injury, thanks to our ability to produce new stem cells. Obviously, there is a limit to how much damage our bodies can repair, although researchers may have just discovered a way to enhance our powers of restoration by increasing the rate at which these stem cells are generated.

不仅仅是狼獾有能力重建和恢复受伤的组织。事实上，当我们受伤时，我们都有一种非凡的治愈能力，这要归功于我们制造新干细胞的能力。显然，我们的身体能够修复的损伤是有限的，尽管研究人员可能刚刚发现了一种方法，通过增加这些干细胞的生成速度来增强我们的修复能力。

A new study in the journal Regenerative Medicine describes how scientists were able to stimulate the self-repair response of rats in order to rebuild broken spines. Healing similar injuries in humans is currently not possible, and the study authors are hopeful that their technique could one day help people recover from a range of previously untreatable injuries.

发表在《再生医学》杂志上的一项新研究描述了科学家如何能够刺激老鼠的自我修复反应，以重建折断的脊椎。在人类身上治愈类似的损伤目前是不可能的，这项研究的作者希望他们的技术有一天能帮助人们从一系列以前无法治愈的损伤中恢复过来。

Ben Taub

Rats in the study were given a cocktail of two drugs, one of which is normally administered during bone marrow transplants while the other is used for bladder control. This caused the rats’ bone marrow to produce an elevated number of mesenchymal stem cells, which are stem cells that can develop into bone tissue.

在这项研究中，研究人员给老鼠注射了两种药物的混合物，其中一种通常在骨髓移植时使用，另一种用于膀胱控制。这使得大鼠的骨髓产生了大量的间充质干细胞，这些干细胞可以发育成骨组织。

As a consequence, enhanced calcium binding was seen at the site of the rats’ spinal injuries, speeding up the formation of new bone and healing the wounds.

结果，在大鼠脊髓损伤部位发现了强化的钙结合，加速了新骨的形成和伤口的愈合。

The figure on the right shows the level of healing with no treatment, while the figure on the left shows the effect of the two drugs in combination. The red coloring indicates calcium incorporating into the bone, which is associated with enhanced healing. Image: Imperial College London

“We know that when bones break they will heal, and this requires the activation of stem cells in the bone,” explained study co-author Sara Rankin in a statement. “However, when the damage is severe, there are limits to what the body can do of its own accord.”

“我们知道，当骨头断裂时，它们会愈合，这需要激活骨头中的干细胞，”研究的合著者萨拉·兰金在一份声明中解释道。“然而，当损害严重时，人体自身的能力是有限的。”

“We hope that by using these existing medications to mobilize stem cells, as we were able to do in rats in our new study, we could potentially call up extra numbers of these stem cells, in order to boost our bodies own ability to mend itself and accelerate the repair process.”

“我们希望通过使用这些现有的药物来动员干细胞，就像我们在新研究中在老鼠身上做的那样，我们可能会调用更多的干细胞，以提高我们身体自我修复的能力，加速修复过程。”

Because the drugs involved are already widely used, the researchers are hopeful that human trials can proceed without the need for extensive safety testing. If these trials produce the same results as those seen in rats, then this treatment could help to not only repair spinal injuries, but to speed up the rate at which broken bones heal and even mend damaged tissues in other organs.

由于所涉及的药物已经被广泛使用，研究人员希望人体试验可以在不需要大量安全测试的情况下进行。如果这些试验的结果与在老鼠身上看到的相同，那么这种治疗不仅可以帮助修复脊髓损伤，而且可以加快骨折愈合的速度，甚至可以修复其他器官受损的组织。