U.K. Scientists Develop IVF Technique To Prevent Genetic Disease Using Three Donors

Main Category: Women's Health / Gynecology
Also Included In: Fertility;  Genetics
Article Date: 07 Feb 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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Scientists at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom recently announced they have developed an in vitro fertilization technique that creates an embryo using the DNA of two women and one man with the aim of preventing women with genetic conditions from passing diseases on to their children, BBC News reports.

The technique targets women with diseases of the mitochondria, which are mini-organs found within individual cells that generate most of a cell's energy. According to BBC News, abnormalities in mitochondrial DNA can cause about 50 known conditions, including blindness, deafness, diabetes, liver failure, muscular dystrophy and strokelike episodes. There is no available treatment for mitochondrial diseases.

The researchers experimented on 10 severely abnormal embryos left over from traditional IVF treatments. Researchers removed the nucleus of the embryos, which contained DNA from a male and a female donor, and transplanted the nucleus to a donor egg that had its DNA mostly removed. The remaining genetic information from the donor egg was a small portion that controls production of mitochondria, or about 16,000 of the three billion parts that comprise the human genome. According to BBC News, the embryos then began to develop normally but were destroyed after six days.

According to BBC News, mice tests have shown that although an infant born using the new technique would carry DNA from three people, the nuclear DNA that defines appearance and other characteristics would not be derived from the female donor. Patrick Chinnery, one of the Newcastle researchers, said, "We believe that from this work, and work we have done on other animals, that in principle we could develop this technique and offer treatment in the foreseeable future that will give families some hope of avoiding passing these diseases to their children."

Marita Pohlschmidt of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, which funded the research, said she is optimistic that it could lead to new treatments. "Mitochondrial myopathies are a group of complex and severe diseases," she said, adding that they "can make it very difficult for clinicians to provide genetic counseling and give patients an accurate prognosis." Josephine Quintavalle of the group Comment on Reproductive Ethics said the technique is "risky, dangerous" and a step towards "designer babies" (BBC News, 2/5).

ABC's "World News" on Tuesday reported on the research. The segment includes comments from Chinnery (McKenzie, "World News," ABC, 2/5). A video excerpt of Chinnery's comments is available online. Expanded ABC News coverage also is available online.

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