科学家发明“类人”白鼠用于药物试验

    You’ve heard of scientists testing drugs on mice — but what if those mice were part human?

    MIT researchers have developed an artificial* liver that can be transplanted* into mice, allowing them to test drugs as if they were human beings. This could lead to more accurate* drug testing.

    Researchers cultivated* human liver cells in a controlled environment with other factors, such as mouse skin cells. The team then implanted the artificial liver under the skin or inside the body of mice, successfully recreating many of the functions of a human liver.

    MIT’s team says this discovery will produce healthy mice that can mimick human liver functionality. This could result in a number of positive applications — researchers could use these mice to test drugs, experiment with metabolic functions, and monitor the interactions between types of drugs — all without using a single human test subject.

    Humanized mice can be useful to scientists across the world, says MIT researcher Alice A. Chen.

    Scientists can also use the mice to study human livers and develop cures* to diseases that normal mice don’t contract — like hepatitis C* or malaria* infections.

    Chen says it won’t be long before they are able to mass-

    produce humanized mice, allowing both industrial and academic scientists to use them for research. This could revolutionize the way researchers test drugs.

    By using mice with human livers, Chen says, researchers will be able to predict* human metabolites* and toxicities* more accurately than they would in animals. (SD-Agencies)