Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Department of Medical Humanities, University Medical Center Utrecht, Post Office Box 85500, 3508 GA Utrecht, Netherlands.
Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Princess Maxima Center and University Medical Center Utrecht, 3584 CT Utrecht, Netherlands.
Science. 2017 Jan 20;355(6322). doi: 10.1126/science.aaf9414.
The ability to generate human tissues in vitro from stem cells has raised enormous expectations among the biomedical research community, patients, and the general public. These organoids enable studies of normal development and disease and allow the testing of compounds directly on human tissue. Organoids hold the promise to influence the entire innovation cycle in biomedical research. They affect fields that have been subjects of intense ethical debate, ranging from animal experiments and the use of embryonic or fetal human tissues to precision medicine, organoid transplantation, and gene therapy. However, organoid research also raises additional ethical questions that require reexamination and potential recalibration of ethical and legal policies. In this Review, we describe the current state of research and discuss the ethical implications of organoid technology.
体外从干细胞生成人体组织的能力在生物医学研究界、患者和公众中引起了巨大的期望。这些类器官使人们能够研究正常发育和疾病，并允许直接在人体组织上测试化合物。类器官有望影响生物医学研究的整个创新周期。它们影响了一些一直是激烈伦理辩论主题的领域，包括动物实验和胚胎或胎儿人体组织的使用，以及精准医学、类器官移植和基因治疗。然而，类器官研究也提出了其他一些需要重新审视和潜在调整伦理和法律政策的伦理问题。在这篇综述中，我们描述了该研究的现状，并讨论了类器官技术的伦理含义。
