胚胎干细胞用于药物及其他化合物筛选的研究进展

胚胎干细胞 (Em bryonic stem cell,ES cell)用于药物及其他化合物的体外筛选 ,称为胚胎干细胞体外测试 (Embryonic stem cell test,EST) ,通过 EST可以把药物等化合物分为三类 :无毒性、弱毒性和强毒性。与其他方法相比 ,EST具有很大优点 :(1)无须牺牲大量怀孕动物。(2 )不用担心对动物或人体的巨大副作用。(3)由于胚胎干细胞在体外分化成多种细胞的潜能 ,EST可用于分化过程中药物或其他化合物对发育过程造成的毒理学研究。(4)可与计算机等分析方法结合 ,因而具有更高的准确率和敏感性。 (5 )可以进行分子水平的定量研究。这些都使得EST在药物筛选中显示出巨大的发展前景。本文综述了 EST的发展、研究方法、现状及其展望。

Embryonic Stem Cell Test in Screening of Medicine and Other Chemicals

The technique of embryonic stem cell test (EST) has been developed and used in vitro to screen new medicines and other chemicals. According to toxicity, such medicines and chemicals can be classified as: non-toxic, weak toxic and/or strong toxic. EST shows merits such as no requirement of the sacrifice of pregnant animals, no side-effects on human or animals for candidate medicines and chemicals, higher sensitivity of embryonic stem cells when compared with the sensitivity of ordinary tissues of adult samples in toxicologic researches, higher accuracy when combined with computing techniques, and possible quantitation based on techniques of molecular biology. Advances in utility of EST technique were reviewed and the prospect of technique was also discussed in this paper.