The fetus has ... 3 parents

Scientists from the University of Newcastle (UK) have created embryos containing DNA of a man and two women.

This study, according to them, has the potential to help mothers with certain rare genetic disorders still be able to produce healthy babies.

The purpose of this is to prevent damaged DNA in the mitochondria (the "energy battery" of cells) inherited from mother to child.

The process of creating the fetus from a father and mother is as follows: Eggs (containing the mother's mitochondria) and the father's sperm combine, creating the embryo.People took the embryos of this embryo and implanted it in another egg, removed it.As a result, new embryos do not carry disease mitochondria like their mothers.

In fact, one in every 200 babies born every year has mutations in mitochondrial DNA. In most cases, this mutation only causes mild illnesses, even without any symptoms. But for every 6,500 babies born to mitochondria, one will have serious, even fatal, diseases such as muscle weakness, blindness or heart disease.

Scientists have developed a technique that could allow these women to replace faulty mitochondria during IVF.

Mitochondria: are tiny parts of the cell that act as batteries to generate energy for the body. They also have their own DNA, independent of DNA in the nucleus. They contain only 37 genes, compared with about 23,000 genes of the cell nucleus.

The procedure is as follows: the father's sperm is combined with the mother's egg. The embryo is then removed, transplanted into another egg that has been removed, but retains the mitochondria.

Thus, this embryo will contain the genes of both parents, and add a little mitochondrial DNA from the donor's eggs.

"What we do is like replacing the battery for a laptop," said research leader Professor Doug Turnbull, explaining the creation of three embryos.

"The power source is now more stable, but the information in the hardware has not changed."

"A child born with this technique will have mitochondria that operate correctly, without errors, but they still receive enough genetic information from both parents ," he said.

According to the BBC, so far, the Newcastle team has created a total of 80 such embryos. The embryos were raised up to 8 days in the laboratory, under the permission of the British Association for Embryology and Reproduction.

The team is expected to conduct further studies to check the safety and effectiveness of the process.

Currently UK law prohibits the use of this technique in the treatment of infertility.

Sharon Bernardi, 44, from Sunderland, inherited her mother's mitochondria. This situation affected the lives of her six children, all of whom died within a few days after birth. The only surviving child, now 20 years old, has severe mitochondrial disease and needs constant care.

Sharon said "It's too late for me, but it's great if scientists can prevent this in the future, so mothers don't have to go through what I've encountered."