50歲換器官 輕鬆再活50年

【聯合報╱編譯莊蕙嘉／報導】 2009.10.21 03:45 am

人上了年紀，「而髮蒼蒼，而視茫茫，而齒牙動搖」，身體老化不聽使喚，似乎是必經之途。但英國里玆大學最新研究指出，新生物科技可讓人類在50歲時汰換老化器官或骨骼，輕鬆再活個50年也不成問題。

這項研究費時5年，斥資5千萬英鎊（約台幣26.6億元），旨在找出可保人類長壽的創新方法。

現行人工髖關節最久可用20年，但里玆大學醫學暨生物工程所已成功為一位民眾移植可永久使用的髖關節。這種髖關節以鈷鉻合金和瓷製成，可走上一億步。

此外，研究還發現運用活體組織培養移植用組織，且不會產生排斥的方法。研究人員採集人體或豬隻組織，用酵素及清潔劑混合物去除細胞後植入人體，新生細胞進入該組織複製，接管組織，便可順利運作。

里玆大學醫學暨生物工程所副所長艾琳‧英格罕指出，該項技術已於巴西進行40件人體試驗及其他動物實驗，皆有顯著成果。所長費雪更信心滿滿地表示，5年內將研發出10項相關產品問世。

未來30至50年內，該項技術可漸漸取代傳統移植手術做法，小至心臟瓣膜，大至器官都能完成，猶如車子進廠大修，人體器官皆可換新。研究單位已向英國國家血液及組織移植署申請執照，並探討該技術如何應用於燒燙傷病患。

本月初的兩項科學研究指出，本世紀生於富裕國家的人，逾半數可活到百歲以上。

另有未來學家預測，藉由奈米科技，人類可及早偵測並治癒癌症等各種疾病。再加上這項換器官的技術，未來百歲人瑞，或許將比比皆是。

【2009/10/21 聯合報】

Science to 'stop age clock at 50'

By Michelle Roberts Health reporter, BBC News

Professor Eileen Ingham explains the main aims of the project

Centenarians with the bodies of 50-year-olds will one day be a realistic possibility, say scientists.

Half of babies now born in the UK will reach 100, thanks to higher living standards, but our bodies are wearing out at the same rate.

To achieve "50 active years after 50", experts at Leeds University are spending £50m over five years looking at innovative solutions.

They plan to provide pensioners with own-grown tissues and durable implants.

New hips, knees and heart valves are the starting points, but eventually they envisage most of the body parts that flounder with age could be upgraded.

The university's Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering has already made a hip transplant that should last for life, rather than the 20 years maximum expected from current artificial hips.

The combination of a durable cobalt-chrome metal alloy socket and a ceramic ball or "head" means the joint should easily withstand the 100 million steps that a 50-year-old can be expected to take by their 100th birthday, says investigator Professor John Fisher.

Meanwhile, colleague Professor Eileen Ingham and her team have developed a unique way to allow the body to enhance itself.

The concept is to make transplantable tissues, and eventually organs, that the body can make its own, getting round the problem of rejection.

BODY PARTS BEING AGE-PROOFED 1. Scientists have developed transplantable tissues the body can make its own, tackling rejection. They have made heart valves using the technique 2. A hip has been made from a durable alloy socket and ceramic ball that should last for life, rather than the current 20 years 3. Similar techniques are being developed for artificial knees 4. Eventually scientists hope to make ligaments and tendons to replace old and damaged ones 5. Artificial blood vessels are also being developed 6. The NHS is looking into using the transplantable tissue methods on donor skin for burns patients 7. Researchers also hope to do the same for organs

So far they have managed to make fully functioning heart valves using the technique.

It involves taking a healthy donor heart valve - from a human or a suitable animal, such as a pig - and gently stripping away its cells using a cocktail of enzymes and detergents.

The inert scaffold left can be transplanted into the patient without any fear of rejection - the main reason why normal transplants wear out and fail.

Once the scaffold has been transplanted, the body takes over and repopulates it with cells.

Trials in animals and on 40 patients in Brazil have shown promising results, says Prof Ingham.

They have licensed the technology to the NHS National Blood and Transplant Tissue Services so it can be used on any UK donated human tissue in the future.

The NHS is already looking into using the method on donor skin for burns patients.

Professor Christina Doyle of Xeno Medical, the medical device company that is developing the technologies under Tissue Regenix, said the holy grail was to remove the heavy reliance on donor organs.

"That's where the technology will lead us eventually."

But she said: "To replace all donor tissue using this technology will take 30 to 50 years. Each single product will need to be designed and tested individually."

Prof Doyle said experts elsewhere were also working on similar regenerative therapies, but grown entirely outside of the body, to ensure that people can continue being as active during their second half-century as they were in their first.

Source: BBC News