Eight children in the UK have been born using a new IVF method that combines DNA from three people to stop the transmission of inherited mitochondrial diseases, NaijNaira can report. The children — four boys and four girls, including identical twins — are healthy and meeting key development milestones.
According to The New England Journal of Medicine, this breakthrough was led by experts at Newcastle University, Newcastle Fertility Centre, and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The method, called mitochondrial donation treatment, is used to replace faulty mitochondria — tiny energy-producing structures in cells — with healthy ones from a donor.
Mitochondrial conditions often damage organs like the brain, heart, and liver. The technique uses a process called pronuclear transfer (PNT), where the genetic material from a mother’s egg is moved into a donor egg that has healthy mitochondria. This allows the baby to inherit nuclear DNA from their parents and mitochondrial DNA from a third person.
“We look at them now, full of life and possibility,” said one mother. “Science gave us a chance.”
The UK approved the treatment in 2015, becoming the first country to do so. The Newcastle clinic remains the only licensed center for this procedure, with each case approved by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
Article updated 3 weeks ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
