Britain pushes ahead with ‘three-parent’ IVF

Britain took a step closer on Friday to becoming the first country to allow radical treatment that uses DNA from three parents to create an embryo.

The government backed an IVF-based technique designed to avoid serious mitochondrial diseases inherited on the maternal side, such as muscular dystrophy and cardiac problems.

Mitochondria are the structures within cells that convert energy from food into a form that the body can use.

The technique would replace some of the unhealthy DNA with healthy DNA from the so-called "third parent".

"It's only right that we look to introduce this life-saving treatment as soon as we can," said Sally Davies, the chief medical officer for England.

Although there were "clearly some sensitive issues here", Davies said she was "personally very comfortable" with the technique.

Parliament is due to debate the regulations next year, opening the way for the treatment to be offered to at-risk women.

One in 200 children is born each year with a form of disease in their mitochondrial DNA.

Scientists are developing a technique to remove some of the mitochondrial DNA of the mother and replace it with DNA from a second woman to create a healthy embryo.

Transmitted through the maternal line, mitochondria only carry a few dozen genes, or about 0.1 percent of the DNA code, and are separate from the nucleus of the cell which contains the remainder.

Continued here:
Britain pushes ahead with 'three-parent' IVF