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An unconventional approach to reproduction is reportedly reducing the risk of metabolic disease.
Three-person in vitro fertilization (IVF), a new concept developed by scientists in New Castle, U.K., has resulted in the births of eight healthy children.
In the study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers found that pathogenic variants in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) are a “common cause” of severe — and often fatal — inherited metabolic disease.
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This DNA in the mother’s mitochondria can cause “harmful mutations” in children, which can lead to diseases that affect tissues in the heart, brain and muscles, according to the journal Nature.
A three-person IVF technique has led to the delivery of eight healthy babies in the U.K. (iStock)
At the Newcastle Fertility Centre, 22 women with pathogenic mtDNA variants underwent a “pronuclear transfer,” in which they received a mitochondrial donation.
This involved the transfer of the nucleus of a fertilized egg with “faulty mitochondria” into a donor egg cell with healthy mitochondria, Nature detailed.
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The result includes nuclear DNA from both the biological mother and father, as well as mitochondrial DNA from the separate egg donor.
From this, eight children were born healthy, with no levels or low levels of mtDNA detected in their blood.
The approach involved the transfer of the nucleus of a fertilized egg with “faulty mitochondria” into a donor egg cell with healthy mitochondria. (David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The researchers noted that one child did develop hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol) and cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) — as the child’s mother had hyperlipidemia during pregnancy — but both conditions responded to treatment.
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Another child developed infant myoclonic epilepsy — a rare type of epilepsy that typically affects infants between 6 months and 3 years old — which concluded in “spontaneous remission.”
“At the time of this report, all the children have made normal developmental progress,” the researchers noted.
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Dr. Zev Williams, director of Columbia University Fertility Center in New York City, said this latest research “marks an important milestone.”
“Expanding the range of reproductive options … will empower more couples to pursue safe and healthy pregnancies,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
This new science will “empower more couples to pursue safe and healthy pregnancies,” noted a Columbia fertility expert. (iStock)
In a press briefing, Robert McFarland, a pediatric neurologist at Newcastle University, who co-led one of the studies, reportedly noted the team’s “cautious optimism” about the results.
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“To see babies born at the end of this is amazing, and to know there’s not going to be mitochondrial disease at the end of that,” he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the study researchers for comment.
