3D打印机有望“打印”出人体器官

　　In laboratories all over the world, experts in chemistry, biology, medicine and engineering are working on many paths toward an audacious goal: to print a functioning human liver, kidney or heart using a patient’s own cells。

　　在世界各地的实验室里，化学、生物、医药和工程学领域的专家们正致力于研究实现一个大胆目标的多元途径。而这个目标就是：用病患自己的细胞打印出功能齐全的肝、肾或者心脏。

　　That's right - new organs, to go. If they succeed, donor waiting lists could become a thing of the past。

　　这个方向没什么错。如果他们成功了，等待器官捐献的病患名单将成为过去时。

　　Bioprinting technology is years and possibly decades from producing such complex organs, but scientists have already printed skin and vertebral disks and put them into bodies. So far, none of those bodies have been human, but a few types of printed replacement parts could be ready for human trials in two to five years。

　　生物打印技术要打印出这么复杂的器官可能还要好几年甚至几十年，但是科学家们已经打印出了皮肤和脊椎间盘并将它们植入了生命体内。目前为止，人类还没有接受过这样的移植手术，但未来两到五年内会有一些打印好的可替代器官进入人体试验进程。

　　Scientists say the biggest technical challenge is not making the organ itself, but replicating its intricate internal network of blood vessels, which nourishes it and provides it with oxygen。

　　科学家称最大的技术困难并不是制造器官本身，而是复制器官内部错综复杂的血管网络，这些血管起到了滋养器官、为器官提供氧气的作用。

　　Many tissue engineers believe the best bet for now may be printing only an organ's largest connector vessels and giving those vessels' cells time, space and the ideal environment in which to build the rest themselves; after that, the organ could be implanted。

　　许多组织工程学家认为如今最好的办法可能是打印出一个器官最大的连接性血管，然后给那些大血管细胞留出充足的时间、空间和理想环境自造剩余血管，最终器官便可以被植入体内。