Baby born with combination of three DNA, first from new technique

Five-month-old Abrahim Hassan's Jordanian parents, Ibtisam Shaban and Mahmoud Hassan, were treated by a USA team based in Mexico using a controversial technique that allows parents with rare genetic mutations to have healthy babies, the New Scientist reports.

It may be time to reenroll in high school health class, because a big change has just been implemented to the reproduction lesson: babies who have three genetic parents are now apparently a reality.

However, some warn that the new technique is controversial as it requires mitochondrial donation which has only been legally approved in the United Kingdom.

The baby boy was born five months ago in Mexico to Jordanian parents, and is healthy and doing well, said the report in New Scientist magazine.

It was done because the mother carries genes for the nervous system disorder known as Leigh syndrome and had two previous children that died from the disease.

Genes for the disease reside in DNA in the mitochondria, which provide energy for the cells and carry 37 genes that are passed down via the mother's side.

The couple had been trying to conceive for the past 20 years and even faced four miscarriages and lost the first two children due to the syndrome.

The boy was born in Mexico to Jordanian parents who asked researchers from the New Hope Fertility Center in NY to help them conceive a healthy child, according to New Scientist. "No other technique has been established", Zhang said.

The boy ended up being born through a technique called spindle nuclear transfer.

The baby was created via an IVF (in vitro fertilization) procedure that involved three people: the mother, the father and a woman who donated eggs. The egg is then fertilized using the husband's sperm. Then that new egg, with the donor's mitochondrial DNA and the mother's nuclear DNA, is fertilized with the father's sperm (and thusly his nuclear DNA as well).

Scientists are scheduled to present details at a meeting next month in Salt Lake City. Some of the children developed genetic disorders and the procedure was banned.

"Indeed, it is revolutionary", said Dr. John Zhang of the New Hope Fertility Center. The doctors should not have ignored the cautious approach of US regulators.

Leigh Syndrome is characterised by progressive loss of mental and movement abilities and arises during the first year of life and results in death within a couple of years.

The expert called the doctor's Mexico location "risky" and raised questions about what went into producing a healthy baby from this case of Mitochondrial transfer.

There are different ways of creating a so-called three-parent baby. And in the United States, an expert panel in February recommended that the government allow clinical trials for such a technique, which could eliminate many inherited mitochondrial diseases. Nine months later, the woman gave birth to a baby boy. In 2002, the Food and Drug Administration asked the clinics to cease using the technique, the BBC reported.