An article from Times talks about how a woman in Athens, Greece gave birth to a healthy baby boy after many failed cycles of IVF. The baby was conceived using a technique called maternal spindle transfer, which is where the biological mother's DNA is removed from the egg and placed into a donor egg that has been emptied of the donor's DNA. The egg was than fertilized and transferred as an embryo for the pregnancy. This technique has been used in a handful of rare cases where the mother has a mitochondrial disease, and this technique allows them to have children without the disease. This baby boy has DNA from his biological mother, his father, and he has mitochondrial DNA from the egg donor.
Seeing that this method was successful, scientists are beginning to wonder if mitochondria play a bigger role in fertility treatments beyond those who have mitochondrial disease. They are planning to look deeper into the effects that different mitochondrial genes can have on children, and it's use in helping with families that struggle with fertility.
I find this very interesting and think that is an amazing feat in science and could be a way to help women with fertility issues to have children. I also think this research may help to find other reasons for fertility issues and that this may help with other fertility treatments in the future.
Link to other births with maternal spindle transfer
This is such an interesting case! Like you mentioned, I think that mitochondrial DNA may indeed play a larger role in DNA replication and fertility. I wonder if this will impact inherited diseases besides mitochondrial disease. Another note, I wonder how the child's overall DNA will be when they decide to have children of their own and how their fertility process will be (the same or different from both their mothers).
ReplyDeleteThis was a good read especially because it involves the DNA, but you also learn something new, and I had no idea this was possible. This is also a good way to help families that have trouble with having children, and a step forward.
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