Babies could be born without mothers after egg cell breakthrough
Scientists have created human egg cells from skin in a breakthrough that could allow babies to be born without biological mothers.
The approach could allow gay men to have children to whom they are genetically related, using DNA from both fathers. If the process is proven safe, re- searchers believe the largest group to benefit could be women whose supplies of eggs are depleted by age or cancer treatment.
Building on a technique used in the 1990s to clone Dolly the sheep, scientists removed the genetic material, the nucleus, from a skin cell. They injected it into a donated human egg from which the nucleus had been removed, and applied a mild electric pulse and a chemical treatment. This process nudged the egg cell to discard half its 46 chromosomes, the structures on which genes are carried. This left 23 — the correct number for an egg. Healthy humans have 46 chromosomes, 23 from the sperm and 23 from the egg.
The shedding of chromosomes was a crucial step not previously achieved artificially.
The team fertilised the labmade “pseudo-eggs” with sperm. Some developed into early stage embryos and about 9 per cent grew for six days to the blastocyst stage, at which embryos would usually be transferred to a womb.
At least a decade of research will be needed before the process is deemed safe and effective enough to advance to a clinical trial, according to Professor Paula Amato, of Oregon Health and Science University in the US, co-author of the study, published in Nature Communications.
Professor Roger Sturmey, a specialist in reproductive medicine at Hull University, said the work “opens up the possibility of creating functional new egg cells from cells from anywhere in the body”.
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