殘疾？我選擇再生！

最新 03-04

Nature has a lot to teach us.

大自然可以教會我們很多東西。

As part of our special package, we explored how animals, plants, and bacteria use different resilience strategies when faced with scarce resources, predators, and other challenges.

作為特別板塊的一部分，我們將探尋動物，植物和細菌如何運用不同的適應策略來面對資源短缺，捕食者和其他挑戰。

Resilience by regeneration

Humans should envy the axolotl (pictured, above).

人類應該會嫉妒蠑螈（上圖所示）。

Our powers of regeneration are limited: Broken bones knit, wounds heal, and large parts of the liver can regenerate, but that"s about it.

我們的再生能力非常有限：碎掉的骨頭長好，傷口癒合，大部分的肝臟可以再生，但也就僅限於此。

But the axolotl—a large salamander also called the Mexican walking fish because it looks like a 20-centimeter eel with stumpy legs—can replace an entire missing limb or even its tail, which means regrowing the spinal cord, backbone, and muscles.

但是蠑螈— 一種大的蜥蜴，也被稱為墨西哥鯰魚因為它看起來像一條20厘米長的有著粗短的腿的鱔魚—它可以替換掉整個肢體或者甚至是尾巴，這意味著重新生長出脊髓，脊椎骨和肌肉。

About 30 research teams are probing how these salamanders do it.

約有30支研究團隊都在探索這些蜥蜴是如何做到的。

In the axolotl, they"ve found, various tissues work together to detect limb loss and coordinate regrowth.

在蠑螈中，他們已經發現，有多種組織協同作用來檢測斷肢體，並協同再生。

In the process, the animals reactivate the same genetic circuits that guided the formation of those structures during embryonic development, causing generalist stem cells to specialize.

在這個過程中，這種動物激活了一種遺傳開關，這種開關與指導胚胎髮育時結構的形成是相同的，可以讓多能幹細胞開始分化。

Axolotls are only one of several regenerators in the animal kingdom.

蠑螈只是動物界里再生高手中的一種。

Flatworms called planarians are even more resilient—able to surge back after losing 90% of their bodies.

有一種叫做三腸渦蟲的變形蟲的恢復能力甚至更強—可以在丟失了90%的身體之後迅速再生。

One small fragment of those 2-centimeter-long aquatic worms can rejuvenate the brain, skin, gut, and all the other functional organs.

這種兩厘米長的水生蟲子，僅僅一小部分就可以再生出大腦，皮膚，內臟和所有其他的功能器官。

Again, stem cells are key, and a special set of genes active in muscles tells those stem cells what to do, activating growth and specialization genes in the right cells at the right time.

幹細胞又一次成為了關鍵，肌肉中的特定激活的基因會指導幹細胞該做什麼，激活生長和讓特定細胞中的特定基因在合適的時間表達出來。