Health officials should collect blood from workers at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in case they are accidentally exposed to high levels of radiation and need a stem cell transplant, Japanese researchers said last week.

They said gathering blood from the workers would give them a ready source of their own stem cells that could help rebuild their bone marrow should they become exposed to high levels of radiation.

"The danger of a future accidental radiation exposure is not passed, since there has been a series of serious aftershocks even this April," Dr Shuichi Taniguchi of Toranomon Hospital in Tokyo and Dr Tetsuya Tanimoto of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research wrote.

The researchers say transplant teams are standing by in Japan and Europe to collect and store the nuclear workers' cells, but so far the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan is balking because it would cause a "physical and psychological burden for nuclear workers."

Collecting cells from the workers has several advantages over donated cells, which require finding a matching donor and carry the risk of rejection.

Stem cell transplants from a person's own cells would allow the workers to avoid taking drugs to suppress the immune system, helping them to better resist infections. The cells could quickly restore normal function to the body's machinery for making blood cells.

And the workers' cells could be banked and stored in case they develop leukemia, which could happen years down the road.

But the solution is not perfect, the team admits. High exposure to radiation would also attack cells in the gut, skin or lung — problems a stem cell transplant could not fix.

Yet, with containment and clean-up efforts at the damaged plant expected to drag on for months or even years, Tanimoto and Taniguchi say taking steps to protect the workers' from future harm is paramount.

"The most important mission is to save the nuclear workers' lives and to protect the local communities," the team wrote. "Such an approach would be the industry's best defense: If a fatal accident happened to the nuclear workers, the nuclear power industry of Japan would collapse."

輻射中毒之解

 

日本研究人員上週表示,衛生官員應該收集受到重創之福島核電廠的員工血液,以防他們因意外接觸到高輻射量而需要進行幹細胞移植。

研究人員指出,收集核廠員工的血液,能在萬一他們接觸到高劑量輻射的情況下,有現成且是自己的幹細胞可用,好幫助員工們重建骨髓。

東京虎之門醫院醫師谷口秀一與日本癌症研究基金會的醫師谷本哲也寫道:「即使到了四月,都還發生了數起強烈餘震,因此未來意外暴露在輻射之中的危機尚未解除。」

雖然研究人員表示,日本與歐洲的移植團隊已經準備好要收集與儲存核電廠員工的細胞,但截至目前為止,日本核能安全委員會仍然舉棋不定。這是因為此舉可能會「對核電廠員工的身心造成負擔」。

若是接受細胞贈與,除了需要找到適合的捐贈者之外,還具有產生排斥的風險。相形之下,直接收集員工自身的細胞,反而有若干優點。

自個人的細胞進行幹細胞移植,能讓核廠員工避免服用會抑制免疫系統的藥物,進而幫助他們抵抗感染。這些細胞也可以迅速恢復身體正常的造血功能。

壯士們的細胞會被儲存起來,以防他們在好幾年後得到白血病。

不過研究團隊坦承,這個方法並非萬無一失。高輻射量也會攻擊腸道、皮膚或肺部的細胞—這並非幹細胞移植可解決。

然而,由於受損福島核電廠的防堵與清理工作,預計將持續數月甚至長達數年,因此谷本哲也與谷口秀一表示,採取行動保護員工未來免受輻射危害,是至關重要的一件事。

研究團隊寫道:「首要任務是要保護福島壯士的生命以及當地社區。這也將是日本核能產業的最佳自保之道:倘若核廠員工發生致命意外,日本的核能產業也將崩潰。」

 

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/guidepost/topics/default.asp?id=2548&sub=4

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