'Three-person babies' grow up into healthy teenagers

More than 15 years ago, seventeen babies were conceived through an experimental infertility treatment -called ooplasmic transplantation- that gave them DNA from three people: mom, dad and an egg donor.

Ooplasmic transplantation involves removing some of the cytoplasm -the liquid part of an egg cell containing the mitochondria- from a healthy donor egg and injecting it in to the mother’s egg.

The infertility treatments took place between 1996 and 2001 on 33 couples who failed to conceive after five IVF attempts.

All children matured with regular health and cognitive abilities, according to the head of the team that conducted the experimental infertility treatment, embryologist Dr Jacques Cohen who reported his results in the journal Reproductive Biomedicine. Dr Cohen said that all children, now teenagers, have done well throughout their lives.

Ooplasmic transplantation is no longer conducted in the USA because the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had concerns about the safety of the technique which mixes DNA from three people.

The study indicated that only one couple had disclosed to their child the method through which she was conceived, 17-year-old Emma Foster (pictured above).

Image credit: http://cbsn.ws/2dYNhh6