Safety of Reproductive Technologies to Be Studied
In the 29 years since the world’s first test tube baby was born, 3 million people have been born thanks to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as IVF. These procedures are now involved in about 1 per cent of all births in Western countries. Regardless of how common the procedures have become, questions have persisted over how safe assisted reproductive technologies are. In particular, concerns about how synthetic hormones could speed up genetic mutations in fetuses conceived via artificial reproductive technologies have persisted. In other words, parents who have already faced the hell of infertility, had to face the possibility that their children might somehow be less healthy than those conceived naturally.
A study just-released from the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Hawaii should put their minds at ease.
The results of new study looking at generations of mice conceived via ART has found that the procedures do not speed up genetic mutations that could lead to an increased incidence of hereditary diseases, such as some kinds of breast cancer.
According to a research team led by Professor John McCarrey at the University of Texas at San Antonio and doctors Ryuzo Yanagimachi and Yukiko Yamazaki from the University of Hawaii, ART do not lead to increases in genetic errors that lead to genetic diseases. The scientists compared mice born via natural reproduction and via the assisted reproductive technologies in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, pre-implantation culture, intracytoplasmic sperm injection and round spermatid injection.
Results of the study will appear in this week’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Tags: assisted-reproduction, ivf-and-genetic-change, safety-of-IVF-to-babiesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Women's health
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