Baby wey dem born wit three pipo DNA

Fertility regulator for UK don confam one baby dem born wit three pipo DNA for di first time.

Most of di DNA of pikin dem like dis dey come from dia two parents and around 0.1% from one third pesin wey be donor woman.

Di pioneering technique na attempt to prevent children dem born wit one devastating mitochondrial diseases.

Na only less dan five of dis kain babies dem don born, but dem neva release further details.

Mitochondrial diseases no get cure and e fit kill within days or even hours of birth. Some families don lose multiple children and dem see dis technique as di only option for dem to get healthy child of dia own.

Mitochondria na di tiny compartments inside nearly every cell of di body wey dey convert food into useable energy.

Defective mitochondria no dey fuel di body and e dey lead to brain damage, muscle wasting, heart failure and blindness.

Na only mama fit pass am down to dia pikin. So mitochondrial donation treatment na one modified form of IVF wey dey use mitochondria from one healthy donor egg.

However, mitochondria get dia own genetic information or DNA wey mean say technically, di resulting children dey inherit DNA from dia parents and small from di donor too. Dis na permanent change dem fit pass down through di generation.

Dis donor DNA only dey relevant for making effective mitochondria, e no dey affect oda traits like appearance and e no dey constitute "third parent".

Dem start di technique for Newcastle and dem introduce di law wey go allow dem create dat kain baby for UK for 2015.

Meanwhile, di UK no immediately press ahead. Di first baby dem born through dis na to one Jordanian family wey bin dey collect treatment for di US for 2016.

Di Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (di HFEA) dey tok say dem don born "less dan five" babies of dis kind as of 20 April 2023. E no dey give di exact numbers to prevent make dem no fit identify di families.

Dis limited details don come out afta one Freedom of Information request by di Guardian newspaper.

"News say na one small number of babies wit donated mitochondria dem don born for di UK na di next step, for wetin go probably remain a slow and cautious process of assessing and refining mitochondrial donation," Sarah Norcross, d director of di Progress Educational Trust tok.

No word from di teams for Newcastle so e still dey uncertain weda di technique dey successful.

Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, from di Francis Crick Research Institute, say: "E go dey interesting to know how well di mitochondrial replacement therapy technique work for one practical level, weda di babies dey free of mitochondrial disease, and weda e get any risk of dem developing problems later for life."

Technically, e get risk of "reversion" wia any defective mitochondria dem carry ova fit gain in number and still result in disease.

Dem don once estimate say up to 150 of those kain babies na im dem fit eventually dey born for di UK every year.