New Genetic Research Improves IVF Success

New genetic research advances may provide the hope many women suffering with faulty mitochondria to birth healthy offspring. This inherited disorder, which affects thousands of women, may be corrected with this new process which was used successfully to birth healthy twin baby monkeys recently. The hereditary defect lies in the mitochondria, or structures in the female's egg. The mitochondria maintain the egg's internal process. When a women's egg with faulty mitochondria is fertilized, the resulting off spring may potentially suffer, after birth, with any one of hundreds of different diseases, many of which are extremely debilitating and some even fatal.

Early research to correct the mitochondria defect involved the researchers injecting healthy donated mitochondria into the defected eggs, but this resulted in birth defects. Mitochondria are very delicate and this process damaged the eggs during transfer. This therapy was banned in the United States because of its dismal failure rate. The new process, performed at the Oregon Health and Science University transferred the DNA needed to make a baby out of the faulty mitochondria, leaving behind the potentially diseased genes and transferred the DNA into eggs empty of DNA which contained healthy mitochondria. This method created three healthy births, neither of which showing any signs of birth defects.

With thousands of babies born each month with this hereditary defect and the subsequent disease it causes, the researchers believe it is important to begin human trials as soon as possible. This new process could alter In Vitro Fertilization techniques worldwide. This would enable women with faulty eggs to birth children without requiring donor eggs. Opponents of the process believe further study is necessary before moving into human trials, sighting the potential for germ line genetic changes because a small number of genes from a third parent will be passed to the child which is also transferrable down through multiple generations.

Dr. Helen Wallace of GeneWatch argues the germ line genetic changes sparks controversy and ethical debates and these questions should be addressed. There is also the safety issue. She feels more safety test should be required before moving on to human trails. However, citing that Mitochondria do not confer any human specific qualities, therefore people should not be overly concern over the germ line alterations, Professor Robin Lovell-Badge of the National Institute of Medical Research in Mill Hill London, fully endorses the procedure and the call for human trails. The three parent embryo controversy may stall human trials for a while. For many women In Vitro Fertilization is their only hope to give birth to a healthy child. For them, their major concern is for the health and well being of their new baby. The fact that it may possess a few genes from a third party may be an insignificant fact. What would you do?

Resource: Genetic advance raises IVF hopes - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8220553.stm