Royan Institute Confirms Feasibility of Birth Plan with 3 Parents in Iran

“The plan to give birth to a baby with 3 parents has been implemented in Iran for many years, but the new research is related to the genetics of the baby because the person who ovulates and the person who becomes pregnant from the donated egg are considered as parents,” Dr. Reza Omani Samani told ANA.

Elaborating on the difference between the new plan and other fertility methods, he said, “In the method of donating eggs, sperm and embryo, always two genetic parents exist and the other two parents are uterine or social parents but the new plan is related to the genetics.”

Omani Samani referred to the role of mitochondria in cellular respiration, and said, “Unlike all intracellular organelles, this organelle has genes and DNA, and the appearance of the baby has nothing to do with mitochondria, and it is made up of the sperm and egg of the parents.”

Noting that mitochondria are formed merely in the mother's cell, he said, “Since the sperm cell is made up of a nucleus, only the mother's mitochondrial DNA is transferred to the baby, and the father is not involved. Some mothers have a chromosomal disorder called mitochondrial disorder which leads to the death and disorder in the baby.”

Omani Samani stated that mitochondrial DNA does not play a role in hereditary traits and diseases, adding, “The modern reproductive process has nothing to do with physical appearance and hereditary diseases because the gene related to physical appearance is placed inside the nucleus. Nucleus DNA is the result of DNA fusion between father's sperm and mother's egg. With the new method, mitochondrial disease is not transmitted to the baby, but it does not prevent any other factors such as appearance and hereditary disease.”

He added that the new fertility method can be performed easily in Iran from a technical point of view, noting, “In fact, this method of nuclear transfer led to the cloning of a sheep. Nuclear transfer in cloning creates a cloned organism, and mitochondrial disease transmission is prevented in egg nuclear transfer.”

Omani Samani also pointed to the religious aspect of the new method, and said, “Hereditary traits are the responsibility of the nucleus; therefore, the baby belongs to the primary parent genetically, and the secondary parent’s genes do not interfere, and from the religious point of view, the baby's lineage is the correct lineage.”

Saying that mitochondrial diseases are very rare, he said, “Getting rid of a rare disease can have a significant effect on the country's scientific progress.”

The researcher stated that scientists are using this method to rejuvenate the egg, adding, “In this method, the egg is taken from a young mother and its nucleus is removed and transferred to the nucleus of an older mother, and fertility becomes possible in the latter.”

“The cost of the new fertility methods is higher than normal laboratory fertility because in addition to the cost of the IVF cycle to embryo transfer, they should also bear the cost of the egg donor. It can be said that the cost of egg transfer is twice the cost of normal IVF. The egg rejuvenation plan through nuclear transfer can be used by many people, and by using this method, hope increases in the hearts of elderly people whose oocytes are no longer capable of pregnancy.”

Noting that laboratory equipment is complete in all fertility centers in Iran and researchers are now able to implement the plan, Omani Samani said, “One of the positive effects of this plan is saving babies from disease, but nothing can be said about its negative impacts at the moment, because no factor has been observed in animal samples and we have to wait to see the possible negative impacts in the long term.”

Last month, media reports said that the first UK baby created with DNA from three people has been born after doctors performed a groundbreaking IVF procedure that aims to prevent children from inheriting incurable diseases.

The technique, known as mitochondrial donation treatment (MDT), uses tissue from the eggs of healthy female donors to create IVF embryos that are free from harmful mutations their mothers carry and are likely to pass on to their children, the Guardian reported.

Because the embryos combine sperm and egg from the biological parents with tiny battery-like structures called mitochondria from the donor’s egg, the resulting baby has DNA from the mother and father as usual, plus a small amount of genetic material – about 37 genes – from the donor.

The process has led to the phrase “three-parent babies”, though more than 99.8% of the DNA in the babies comes from the mother and father.

The work is aimed to help women with mutated mitochondria to have babies without the risk of passing on genetic disorders. People inherit all their mitochondria from their mother, so harmful mutations in the “batteries” can affect all of the children a woman has.

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