A baby is conceived thanks to a technique that incorporates the DNA of three people – Expansion MX

CITY (Notimex) –

Scientists announced the successful birth of the first baby conceived thanks to an innovative technique that incorporates the DNA of three people, and that represents a new era in medicine.

The technique would help families with rare genetic diseases.

The baby, a healthy boy now five months old, has the DNA of his mom and dad, plus a small amount of genetic code from a donor, reported by a team of embryologists with headquarters in the united States that conducted a part of the procedure in Mexico.

The new and controversial technology called ‘donation mitochondrial’ (which allows parents with rare genetic mutations to have healthy children), it has only been approved legally in the United Kingdom.

In an article published in the british journal New Scientist, the specialists refer the child’s parents are jordanians, but that the mother carries genes of the Leigh syndrome, a fatal disease that affects the development of the nervous system.

The genes of this syndrome resides in the mitochondria of the DNA, which provide energy to our cells and are just 37 genes that are passed on to children by mothers. This is independent of the majority of our DNA is found in every cell’s nucleus.

About a quarter of the mitochondria of the mother has the mutation causing the disease and, although she is healthy, Leigh syndrome was responsible for the death of their first two children.

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The couple sought the help of dr. John Zhang and his team at the Fertility Center of New Hope in the city of New York, who have been working on a way to avoid mitochondrial disease using the technique "three parents."

The method adopted in the United Kingdom is called "transfer pronuclear" and consists fertilize both the ovum of the mother as the egg of a donor with the sperm of the father. Before the fertilized eggs begin to divide in the initial phase, it is removed each core.

The nucleus of the fertilized ovum from the donor is discarded and is replaced by that of the mother.

however, this technique was not appropriate for the couple -as muslims were opposed to the destruction of embryos-and that Zhang modified technique: he removed the nucleus of one of the eggs of the mother and inserted it into the donor, to which she removed her own core.

then, the egg resulting -with the nuclear DNA of the mother and the mitochondrial donor was fertilized with the sperm of the father, and was implanted in the uterus of the mother, who, after the normal development of the pregnancy had her son 9 months later.

the birth of The healthy baby was welcomed by the medical circles around the world as an excellent news that you are going to "revolutionize" medicine.

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