In a fresh success story of modern medical science, first baby to three genetic parents was born in Mexico.
A controversial new technique was employed by US scientists in order to make it possible. In the method adopted by the scientists, DNA from three parents came together in the embryo.
According to reports, the baby was born to Jordanian parents in Mexico about five months back. The method was adopted by scientists in order to overcome a genetic disorder suffered by the baby’s mother.
As per reports, the woman has been carrying genes for a disorder known as Leigh Syndrome, due to which her previously born babies met a premature end.
The woman whose identity has been withheld, had suffered miscarriages too in the past.
Following which the parents sought the help from New Hope Fertility Center in New York to have a baby that would be genetically related to them but not with the disease.
As United States has not approved three-parenthood method for fertility purposes, the parents were taken to Mexico for the treatment.
Since the mother carried the genes for the disease in her mitochondria, or DNA that is passed down from the maternal side, Zhang used her nuclear DNA and combined it with mitochondria from an egg donor, in a technique known as spindle nuclear transfer.
“He removed the nucleus from one of the mother’s eggs and inserted it into a donor egg that had had its own nucleus removed. The resulting egg –- with nuclear DNA from the mother and mitochondrial DNA from a donor -– was then fertilized with the father’s sperm,” said a report in the Magazine New Scientist.
