A baby has been born using three people's DNA for the first time in the UK, the fertility regulator has confirmed. Most of their DNA comes from their two parents and around 0.1% from a third, donor woman. The pioneering technique aims to prevent children being born with devastating mitochondrial diseases.
Fewer than five such babies have been born, but no further details have been released to protect the families' identities. Mitochondrial diseases are incurable and can be fatal within days or hours of birth. Defective mitochondria fail to fuel the body, leading to brain damage, muscle wasting, heart failure and blindness.
Mitochondrial donation treatment is a modified form of IVF that uses mitochondria from a healthy donor egg. The technique was pioneered in Newcastle, and laws allowing it were introduced in the UK in 2015. However, the first baby born via this technique was to a Jordanian family having treatment in the US in 2016.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) confirmed the births as of 20 April 2023, following a Freedom of Information request by the Guardian newspaper. Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust, said: 'News that a small number of babies with donated mitochondria have now been born in the UK is the next step in what will probably remain a slow and cautious process of assessing and refining mitochondrial donation.'
Prof Robin Lovell-Badge from the Francis Crick Research Institute said: 'It will be interesting to know how well the mitochondrial replacement therapy technique worked at a practical level, whether the babies are free of mitochondrial disease, and whether there is any risk of them developing problems later in life.' There is a risk of 'reversion' where any defective mitochondria carried over could gain in number and still result in disease.
