First babies born in Britain using DNA from three people

The first babies with DNA from three people have been born in the UK after doctors experimented with an innovative IVF procedure in the hopes that they could prevent the babies from inheriting rare genetic diseases.

Fewer than five babies have been born this way in the UK, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority confirmed Wednesday.

The technique, which is called mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT), uses tissue from the eggs of healthy female donors to create IVF embryos without harmful mutations mothers would otherwise pass on to their children, the Guardian first reported.

Legislation passed in 2015 made the UK the first country to permit the procedure, which women with problems linked to mitochondria, the energy-producing structures outside a cell’s nucleus, from passing defects on to their offspring.

Two years later, Britain’s Newcastle University became the first and only center authorized to perform the procedure.

The first cases were approved in 2018.

The regulators said the number of births was “less than five” to avoid the possibility of the families involved being identified.

Scientists hope that such a procedure would help people prevent passing genetic defects onto their children.

The genetic defects can result in diseases like muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, heart problems and intellectual disabilities.

About one in 200 children born in Britain is born with a mitochondrial disorder.

There have been 32 patients approved to receive such treatment.

When conducting the procedure on women with faulty mitochondria, scientists take genetic material from their egg or embryo and transfer it to a donor egg or embryo that has healthy mitochondria but has had the rest of its key DNA removed.

The genetic material used from the donated egg makes up less than 1% of the child created from this technique.

“Mitochondrial donation treatment offers families with severe inherited mitochondrial illness the possibility of a healthy child,” the regulator said in a statement.

Newcastle University said it would soon publish details of the treatment.

In 2016, US-based doctors announced they had created the world’s first baby using such techniques, after traveling to Mexico to perform the methods, which have not been approved in the United States.

With Post wires.