Swiss researchers have developed a machine that, they say, can keep human livers alive outside of the body for one week.

瑞士研究人员开发了一种机器，他们说，能让人的肝脏在体外存活一周。

Current technology and methods are only able to keep human livers alive for up to 24 hours.

目前的技术和方法只能使人类肝脏在体外存活 24 小时。

The new machine is able to keep the liver active by performing several functions normally carried out by the human body.

新机器能够通过执行人体通常执行的多种功能来保持肝脏活动。

Researchers say they expect the technology to greatly increase the number of livers available for transplant.

研究人员说他们希望这项技术增加可移植肝脏的数量。

This could save the lives of many patients suffering from severe liver disease who need to have their liver replaced.

这可以挽救许多患有严重肝病且需要进行肝脏移植的病人的生命。

Scientists from the University of Zurich in Switzerland developed the machine.

瑞士苏黎世大学的科学家们发明了这台机器。

They recently reported their results in the publication Nature Biotechnology.

他们最近在杂志《自然生物技术》中报告了他们的结果。

The researchers say the purpose of their "Liver4Life" machine is to perform what they call liver perfusion operations outside of the human body. Perfusion is the process by which blood or other fluids are pumped through organs and tissue.

研究人员说，他们的 “Liver4Life” 机器的目的是进行在人体外所谓的肝脏灌注手术。灌注是血液或其他液体通过器官和组织泵送的过程。

The machine keeps the liver at the right temperature and moves it in a way that would be natural in the body.

这台机器使肝脏保持在适当的温度，并以模拟人体内正常的活动方式移动它。

It uses a pump to fill the liver with blood acting like a replacement for a human heart.

它使用泵为肝脏填充血液，就像人类心脏的替代品一样。

The machine also provides oxygen to the organ, controls red blood cell levels and removes waste.

该机器还向肝脏提供氧气，控制红细胞水平并清除废物。

A healthy liver is necessary to support life.

健康的肝脏对维持生命至关重要。

The liver receives about 25 percent of blood from the heart and carries out about 5,000 different tasks in the body.

肝脏从心脏接收约 24％的血液，并在体内执行约 5000 种不同的任务。

Livers are among the most commonly transplanted human organs.

肝脏是人体最常见的移植器官之一。

Most transplants involve patients suffering from severe liver disease or cancer.

大多数移植涉及患有严重肝病或癌症的患者。

The Mayo Clinic in the state of Minnesota reported that, in 2017, about 8,000 liver transplants were performed in the U.S. among adults and children.

明尼苏达州的梅奥诊所报告说，2017 年，美国在成人和儿童中进行了约 8000 次肝移植。

Of those, 360 involved livers from living donors. In addition, about 11,500 people were registered on a waiting list to receive a liver transplant, the organization said.

其中，360 例移植来自活体捐赠者的肝脏。此外，该组织称约有 11500 人登记在等待接受肝移植的名单上。

Keeping livers alive and functioning for longer periods could greatly improve the chances of survival for patients.

让肝脏存活并长时间保持功能可以大大提高患者的生存几率。

The research team began their experiments using livers from pigs.

研究小组一开始使用猪肝进行实验。

After repeated testing and engineering development, the team said it was able to get the pig livers to survive for seven days with support only provided from the Liver4Life machine.

经过反复的测试和工程开发，研究小组表示，仅通过 Liver4Life 机器提供的支持，猪肝能够存活 7 天。

The scientists said they also discovered that the system can work to repair damaged livers.

科学家们说，他们还发现该系统可以修复受损的肝脏。

In one test, the team connected the machine to 10 injured human livers that had been rejected for transplantation by all European medical centers.

在一次测试中，研究小组将机器连接到了 10 个被所有欧洲医疗中心拒绝移植的受伤人类肝脏上。

After seven days of perfusion treatment from the machine, six of the human livers fully regained important liver functions, the researchers reported.

研究人员报告称，在机器进行了 7 天的灌注治疗后，六个人类肝脏完全恢复了重要的肝功能。

Pierre-Alain Clavien is chairman of the Department of Surgery and Transplantation at University Hospital Zurich.

皮埃尔 - 阿兰・克莱文是苏黎世大学医院外科和移植科的主席。

He helped lead the research.

他协助领导了这项研究。

"The success of this unique perfusion system - developed over a four-year period by a group of surgeons, biologists and engineers - paves the way for many new applications in transplantation and cancer medicine, helping patients with no liver grafts available," Clavien said in a statement.

“这种独特的灌注系统的成功 —— 由一群外科医生、生物学家和工程师在四年时间内开发出来 —— 为移植和癌症医学的许多新应用铺平了道路，帮助那些无法获得肝脏移植的患者，” 克莱文在一份声明中说。

He added that the successful treatment of poor-quality livers could lead to a wide range of new treatment possibilities.

他补充说，对质量不佳的肝脏的成功治疗可能会带来广泛的新治疗可能性。

Such treatments could be used to repair preexisting liver damage, remove fat from the organ or even recreate partial livers.

此类治疗可用于修复先前存在的肝脏损伤、从器官中去除脂肪，甚至重建部分肝脏。

The team is now planning its next step in the development process.

研究小组现在正在计划其在开发过程中的下一步。

It is making preparations to transplant machine-treated organs into patients.

他们正在为将经过机器处理的器官移植到患者体内做准备。

I'm Bryan Lynn.

我是布莱恩・林恩。