BRMAC Briefing Document for Day 1, May 9, 2002 Ooplasm transfer as method to treat female infertility

Several fertility clinics in the United States are experimenting with ooplasm transfer. This technique is hypothesized to enhance fertility in women who have failed conventional in vitro fertilization due to poor embryo development. It involves injection of cellular material (cytoplasm or ooplasm) from a donor egg into the mother’s unfertilized egg prior to fertilization in vitro. The transferred material includes proteins, RNAs, small molecules, and organelles. Prominent among these are mitochondria, the organelles responsible for cellular aerobic respiration. Mitochondria contain their own genetic material, as they are thought to have evolved from primitive bacteria. Thus, when ooplasm is transferred, mitochondrial DNA from the donor is transferred to the recipient egg. Several recent scientific reports document that some children born following use of this technique do, indeed, carry genetic material from three separate individuals: their biological parents and the ooplasm donor. The technique is therefore de facto germ line gene transfer and represents the first reported case of “human germline genetic modification” [1]. This crosses a line drawn by many scientists and bioethicists at altering the genetic profile of unborn children [2;3] and, as a result, has occasioned attention in scientific publications and the popular press.