Eight babies have been born in the UK from the genetic material of three people after an IVF procedure to prevent devastating disease.
All eight babies were born healthy and the experimental fertility treatment is to be rolled out more widely.
The mother of one of the babies, a boy, said: “We are now proud parents to a healthy baby. This breakthrough has lifted the heavy cloud of fear that once loomed over us.”
Another said: “This treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby. We’re overwhelmed with gratitude. Science gave us a chance.”
The UK was the first country to legalise the technique, which is designed to help women with mutations affecting their mitochondria, tiny structures inside cells that release energy. Without the technique, affected children may die young or have profound disabilities, as their cells are deprived of energy.
Undated handout graphic issued by Newcastle University and the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust of a diagram showing pronuclear transfer. Eight babies have been born in the UK thanks to a groundbreaking three-person IVF technique to prevent devastating disease, world-first data shows. Photo credit should read: Newcastle University/Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust/PA WireNewcastle University has used this approach, called mitochondrial donation, on 22 women, leading to eight pregnancies, one of which involved twins. Four girls and four boys have been born so far.
In the technique, sperm is used to fertilise an egg, before DNA is removed from them and injected into a donor egg that has healthy mitochondria but has had most of its DNA discarded.
Because mitochondria contain a small amount of DNA, the resulting children have genetic material from three people. But mitochondrial DNA does not affect characteristics like looks or personality.
Two of the children have had minor childhood illnesses, while one has had high blood lipid levels, but this may have been caused by a similar condition in their mother.
The findings “give grounds for optimism”, said Professor Mary Herbert, a reproductive biologist who carried out the study at Newcastle University.
Five of the babies have almost entirely normal mitochondria. The others have low levels of abnormal mitochondria, at up to 20 per cent in blood and urine samples. It is thought that mitochondrial diseases arise only if faulty mitochondria reach 80 per cent.
Scientific progress led Parliament to change the law in 2015 to permit mitochondrial donation treatment. In 2017, the Newcastle clinic became the first and only national centre licensed to perform it, with the first cases approved in 2018.
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