News: At least eight babies have been born in the UK using DNA from three people, thanks to a groundbreaking fertility technique designed to stop the passing on of inherited genetic diseases.
About Mitochondrial Donation Treatment (MDT)
- It is a form of IVF that replaces faulty mitochondrial DNA in the patient’s eggs with healthy mitochondrial DNA from a donor egg.
- It helps in preventing serious and often fatal conditions linked to mitochondrial defects
- Process
- Mitochondria are tiny structures in cells that produce energy.
- When they don’t work properly, they can lead to severe conditions affecting the brain, muscles, heart and other organs.
- MDT works by removing the faulty mitochondria in a woman’s egg and replacing them with healthy ones from a donor.
- The mother’s nuclear DNA, which makes up most of a person’s genes, is kept intact.
- So, the baby inherits DNA from three people: the mother, the father, and the donor
- However, the donor’s contribution is less than 1% of the child’s total genetic material.
Note: The UK became the first country to approve the use of mitochondrial donation in 2015.
