In Vitro Fertilisation

(asked on 8th January 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the experiments on human embryonic stem cells derived from blastocysts that are heteroplasmic for abnormal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and blastocysts created through maternal spindle transfer and pronuclear transfer where the oocytes had abnormal mtDNA, recommended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's expert panel in its publication Scientific review of the safety and efficacy of methods to avoid mitochondrial disease through assisted conception, published April 2011, has been concluded; and in which peer-reviewed journal he plans to publish the results of those experiments.


Answered by
 Portrait
Jane Ellison
This question was answered on 13th January 2015

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has advised that the Expert Panel it convened revised this recommended research to the following, as outlined in its 2013 and 2014 reports:

“Tests for heteroplasmy should be carried out on primordial germ cells obtained from human ES cells derived from blastocysts created through MST and PNT where the oocytes had variant or abnormal mtDNA. If primordial germ cell derivation is not possible or limitations in the model undermine its utility, clonal analysis of single cell-derived human ES cells could be used. Comparisons beginning with blastocysts known to be heteroplasmic for variant or abnormal mtDNA would be informative. This recommendation still stands.”

The Panel’s reports can be found on the HFEA’s website at:

http://www.hfea.gov.uk/6896.html

The Panel’s rationale regarding experiments using abnormal mitochondria is outlined at section 3.5 of their 2014 report.

At the time of writing the 2014 report, to the Panel’s knowledge, this work had not been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

The Department does not routinely publish scientific research conducted independently by others.

Reticulating Splines