Carnivorous Plant Inspires Anticlotting Medical Devices
猪笼草催生抗凝血导管
By copying aspects of the slick surfaces of insect-catching pitcher plants, researchers created tubes that can carry blood without promoting the formation of blood clots or bacterial attachment. Cynthia Graber reports
通过模仿猪笼草光滑的表面，研究人员制造了一种可以抗血凝结和细菌滋生的导管。
撰文 辛西娅•格雷柏（Cynthia Graber）
翻译 王宁
审校 李轩
Medical devices like implanted arteries or external dialysis machines keep people alive. But persistent problems exist. Blood flowing through the tubes can form dangerous clots. And bacteria that stick to surfaces could start infections.
植入性动脉和外置型透析仪这样的医学设备可以延续患者的生命，但是这些疗法一直有一些问题存在，当血液流过这些设备的管道时会产生危险的凝结块，而且导管内表面附着的细菌可能会导致感染的发生。
Treatment for patients using such devices thus often includes anticlotting agents such as heparin. But such substances have their own risk: by interfering with clotting, they can cause potentially deadly bleeding
使用这些医疗仪器的患者经常要使用肝磷脂这样的抗血凝结的药物，但是这类化学物质有一定风险，其干扰凝血的功能有可能会导致潜在而致命的出血。
Recently, researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University looked to the carnivorous pitcher plant for guidance. The plant’s structure includes wells with surfaces too slippery for insects to crawl out of. Those surfaces inspired the development of a coating so slippery that it prevents blood and bacteria from sticking.
最近，哈佛大学生物工程系威斯研究所决定从猪笼草中寻求启发。猪笼草有着光滑的内壁结构，昆虫掉进去就再无可能爬上来。这一表面结构启发了一种抗血液凝固与细菌附着的涂层的研究。
The team tested the coating on the interiors of tubes and catheters attached to pigs. They demonstrated that the coating did not degrade, and that blood kept flowing without clotting, for eight hours. Blood usually starts to clot in tubes in an hour. The study is in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
研究小组在输血导管内壁涂上涂层，并在猪身上进行了测试。测试结果显示，在8小时之内，涂层不会发生降解，并且血液一直流动顺畅，没有产生凝结。而一般情况下，在试管内的血液会在1小时内凝结。这一研究成果被发表在了《自然生物》杂志上。
The researchers also tested whether a gecko could latch onto the coating with its notoriously sticky footpads. But not even the gecko could get a grip.
研究人员还测试了壁虎那众所周知拥有强大附着力的脚能否黏在涂层上，结果竟然是——连壁虎也无法立足其上。
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