Three-Parent IVF Technique In Britain

15.03.2011

LONDON--Britain is considering whether to approve a fertility treatment designed to prevent some incurable inherited diseases under which babies would be conceived from three biological parents.
British Health Minister Andrew Lansley asked the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to assess three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF) after British researchers said they had mastered the technique using cloning technology.
The method, developed by scientists at Newcastle University, swaps DNA between two fertilized human eggs.
It involves intervening in the fertilization process to remove malfunctioning mitochondrial DNA, which can lead to a range of conditions including fatal heart problems, liver failure, brain disorders, blindness and muscular weakness.
Mitochondria are the “batteries” of cells. They are inherited only from the mother, which means it is possible to inherit faulty mitochondria. Around one in 6,500 children are born with serious diseases caused by faulty mitochondrial DNA.

The UK Department of Health said Friday that Lansley wanted the HFEA to coordinate an expert group “to assess the effectiveness and safety” of the technique, which is banned under British law.

The scientists use a variation of the same technique used to make Dolly the cloned sheep in 1996.
Within a day of uniting egg and sperm using IVF, nuclear DNA is removed from the embryo and implanted into a donor egg, whose own nucleus has been removed and discarded.
The resulting embryo inherits nuclear DNA, or genes, from both its parents, but mitochondrial DNA from a second “mother” who donated the healthy egg. In humans, about 37 genes are found in the mitochondria, while the rest of the more than 20,000 known genes are in the DNA found in the nucleus.
Murdoch said the HFEA review could take up to a year, but it was important to involve lawmakers early.

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