#three parent

In 2015, the United Kingdom became the first country in the world to legalize the creation of babies from the DNA of three people in a technique known as mitochondrial DNA replacement therapy. – WTF Fun Facts

Another Three-Parent Baby Is Born

Doctors from Nadiya clinic in Kiev, Ukraine announced that a baby girl is born with the help of so-called three-parent technique. This is the first birth of a child in Ukraine, which was conceived in such a way. A few months ago, the world’s first baby boy was born in Mexico. This childbirth has opened the door of a brand new medicine technique in infertility treatments.

Clinic director Valery Zukin holding the baby girl. Nadiya Clinic

The baby’s mother suffered from infertility, particularly from embryonic arrest, for 15 years and finally with the help of mitochondrial transfer technique she manages to conceive and deliver a healthy girl. The baby genetically speaks, has three parents. The chromosomes she inherited from father and mother, but the mitochondrial DNA from a donor. The director of Nadiya clinic Valery Zukin claims that approximately 10-20 thousand women per year could be potential candidates for using this method.

IVF Techniques – How it works?

Widely known as three-parent technique, this method is actually in vitro fertilization called pronuclear transfer. So, how it works? In theory, there are a few ways of doing this.

First is, above mentioned, pronuclear transfer. Pronuclei is the nucleus of a sperm or an egg cell during the process of fertilization. So, the mother’s egg and a donor egg are fertilized at the same time with the father’s sperm. Before the fertilized eggs start dividing into early-stage embryos, each nucleus is removed. Then the pronuclei are sucked out of the mother’s egg and transferred into the empty donor egg. Still, there is controversy about this method, most the ethical one. It appears the mitochondrial transfer is too big healthy risk as high numbers of mitochondria including disease-carrying ones from the mother’s egg may be carried into the donor egg.

Source: Third scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, June 2014

The second method is spindle transfer. Spindles are protein fiber and chromosomes are attached to them. This mixture is removed from mother’s egg and inserted into the donor egg, which previously left without its nucleus. Then a sperm cell is injected into the resulting egg to fertilize it. The result is nuclear DNA from the mother and mitochondrial DNA from a donor.

Spindle transfer – Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, June 2014

The third possibility is polar body transfer. This technique was first published in 2014 and it is considered promising as there is a greatly reduced chance of transmitting mitochondrial from the recipient because polar bodies contain very few mitochondria. It also doesn’t include extracting materials from eggs.

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, June 2014

Interestingly, these techniques are approved in the UK as a way of avoiding genetic diseases. According to the British Fertility Society, IVF techniques are highly experimental and has to be more scientifically proven to be used regularly for baby births. However, success with Ukrainian and Mexican babies giving a hope to million couples.

 World's first baby born from new procedure using DNA of three people

The world’s first baby to be born from a new procedure that combines the DNA of three people appears to be healthy, according to doctors in the US who oversaw the treatment.

The baby was born on 6 April after his Jordanian parents traveled to Mexico where they were cared for by US fertility specialists.

Doctors led by John Zhang, from the New Hope Fertility Center in New York, decided to attempt the controversial procedure of mitochondrial transfer in the hope that it would give the couple a healthy child.

While many experts welcomed news of the birth, some raised concerns that the doctors had left the US to perform the procedure beyond the reach of any regulatory framework and without publishing details of the treatment.

Speaking to the New Scientist, Zhang said he went to Mexico where “there are no rules” and insisted that doing so was right. “To save lives is the ethical thing to do,” he said.

Hi everyone!

The UK is currently having a political debate about a possible technology which could help prevent mitochondrial disease. The idea is to use a form of IVF to take the genetic material from two parents and to transplant this into a donor egg, replacing the defective mitochondria which would otherwise be passed on from the parent who produces eggs.  Since some genetic material is passed on from mitochondrial, the child would inherit genetic material from three different people. 

The will be a vote in parliament on Tuesday to decide whether this technique will be made legal. 

Here are some useful links (content warning for cissexist language and discussion of grief and child death): 

Interview with Prof Doug Turnbull, the head of the centre which pioneered the research

The catholic and anglican churches oppose the use of the technology

More info about the technique and proposed regulation