Engineering Disease-Free Babies?

April 16, 2010— -- It takes two to make a baby, or maybe three or four if you're worried about passing on select genetic diseases.

Doctors in the United Kingdom announced Tuesday that they had successfully genetically engineered embryos from parents who would have passed on mitochondrial DNA mutations by conceiving the old-fashioned way. The researchers reported the feat in the journal Nature.

"Because of the lack of a viable treatment for these patients, and their families, preventing the transmission of mtDNA [mitochondrial DNA] disease is a priority," Douglas Turnbull, of the New Castle Institute for Brain Aging and Vitality and colleagues wrote in the article.

Mitochondria can be found in the cytoplasm of the cells, where they produce most of the cells energy. They have their own DNA distinct from the 50-50 mother-father split in the nucleus of a cell. A child directly inherits only its mother's mitochondrial DNA, and in some cases will be certain to inherit a debilitating mitochondrial mutation.

Turnbull and his colleagues took 80 donated fertilized eggs that were unsuitable for in vitro fertilization, removed the nuclei and replaced the nucleus from the unhealthy egg with mutated mitochondria into the healthy egg.

All of the genetically engineered zygotes soon developed into blastocysts and were destroyed within 6 to 8 days. But conceivably, couples could go through the same process and get a baby that looks like them but doesn't carry the mother's mutated mitochondrial DNA in the cytoplasm of their cells. A different method with similar goals was completed with monkeys in 2009.

The authors of the paper argue that while some couples who know they are at risk for passing on mitochondrial diseases can already get genetic counseling or expect only mild problems from mitochondrial mutation, other families are more unfortunate.

"In some families, mtDNA disease can affect multiple family members with catastrophic consequences," wrote Turnbull and colleagues. "For these families, pronuclear transfer may be an option that mothers who carry mtDNA mutation may consider."