London: Scientists have inched closer to
producing a controversial "three parent baby" after they
successfully fertilised an egg with two biological mothers, a
development likely to provoke an ethical storm over hybrid or
genetically modified children.
The research led by Atsushi Tanaka of St Mother
Hospital in Kitakyushu, Japan, has shown that eggs donated by
young females could be used to repair the damaged eggs of
older women, increasing the chances of successful
fertilisation.
Though they are yet to use the eggs to produce babies,
they injected them with sperm to produce an early stage embryo
in the laboratory.
Tanaka team removed the nuclei from 31 eggs collected
from women undergoing IVF and injected them into enucleated
eggs donated by women aged under 35. Of these, 25 eggs looked
viable.
When injected with sperm, 7 eggs or 28 per cent formed
early-stage embryos called blastocyts, compared with just 3
per cent of the unrepaired eggs, the New Scientist reported
today.
The research is likely to provoke an ethical outrage
as critics believe it could lead to hybrid or genetically
modified children.
"If we could transfer these constructed new embryos, I
believe the success rate would be high," Tanaka, the lead
researcher was quoted as saying by the New Scientist.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, November 12, 2009, 16:15