IVF babies risk major diseases in later life
IVF associated with unhealthy epigentic changes
Epigenetic changes in the DNA of IVF babies could make them more prone to diseases like diabetes and obesity in later life. “These epigenetic differences have the potential to affect embyronic development and foetal growth, as well as influencing long-term patterns of gene expression associated with increased risk of many human diseases,” says Professor Carmen Sapienza, a geneticist at Temple University in Philadelphia, who jointly led research published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.
And there is a danger, as the proportion of children conceived through IVF rises in the population, that the changes could be transmitted to their own children, thus creating a more disease-prone population.
However, identifying the epigenetic differences between IVF babies and normally-conceived babies is one thing. Attributing it to IVF itself is another. It is also possible that a higher level of epigenetic changes in the couple could be the explanation of their infertility, not the IVF process itself. ~ London Sunday Times, Jan 10
Michael Cook
IVF
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
More Stories
Mortality rates for American kids are rising for the first time in 50 years
US President Joe Biden is so concerned about the future of American children that he inserted a mandate for affordable...
Will Pope Francis be composted?
Will Pope Francis be composted instead of buried in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome with his predecessors? It’s unlikely. But...
The virtues and the vices of the outrageous
A Norwegian bioethicist, Anna Smajdor, recently set out a case for “Whole Body Gestational Donation” – using the wombs of...
More than 200 people have been treated with experimental CRISPR therapies
Scientists believe that CRISPR gene editing technologies will transform medicine. But how many people have been treated so far? According...
Asia-Pacific IVF market could reach US$46 billion by 2031
According to a market survey by Allied Market Research, IVF is booming in the Asia-Pacific region. The market size was...
Third global summit on human genome editing: Moving on after the He experiment
The much anticipated Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing was held in London earlier this month to explore the...