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A needle approaches an egg cell (purple) during in vitro fertilization, which some clinics are offering in combination with a procedure called mitochondrial replacement therapy. Credit: Zephyr\/Science Photo Library<\/p>\n
A small number of fertility clinics around the world are offering a controversial treatment: a procedure to furnish clients\u2019 embryos with donated mitochondria as a way to increase the chances of taking home a baby.<\/p>\n
The method, called mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT)<\/a>, involves removing the nucleus from a person\u2019s egg or a couple\u2019s single-cell embryo and transplanting it into an egg from a young donor. The theory \u2014 which remains unproven in rigorous clinical trials \u2014 is that the donor\u2019s mitochondria might help the egg, after it is fertilized, or embryo to mature. Any resulting babies would have nuclear DNA from their biological mothers and fathers and mitochondrial DNA from the egg donor.<\/p>\n Scientists have already shown in a clinical trial that MRT can produce healthy children for parents whose mitochondria carry disease-causing mutations<\/a>. But Nature has identified clinics in Asia, Europe and the Americas that advertise MRT to increase the success rate of in vitro fertilization (IVF)<\/a> for a broader range of clients who do not have such mutations. \u201cMRT can transform your fertility journey,\u201d says the website of an agency called the International Fertility Group as of the time of this article’s publication. The agency helps people find and receive services from fertility clinics around the world. (A spokesperson for the agency said that MRT is performed not by the agency itself but by partner clinics.)<\/p>\n It is difficult to confirm that all of these clinics are genuinely performing the procedure. But they are advertising it on their websites and social media channels. Clinicians and scientists \u2014 including some who think that MRT holds promise \u2014 broadly agree that this therapy is experimental and that, at present, it should be offered only as part of a clinical trial.<\/p>\n First UK children born using three-person IVF: what scientists want to know<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m pretty horrified,\u201d says Richard Anderson, a fertility doctor at the University of Edinburgh, UK, after reviewing the MRT offering of one of the clinics identified by Nature. He says that the technique is difficult, the risks are high and the benefits are uncertain.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re offering the treatment \u2014 generally very expensive treatment \u2014 to people who are desperate to have their own baby,\u201d despite the absence of published evidence from controlled trials to support its use for infertility, says Mary Herbert, a reproductive biologist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, who has led a clinical trial involving MRT. \u201cIt\u2019s fundamentally wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Uliana Dorofeyeva, the advisory clinical director for the International Fertility Group, defends the practice. \u201cThis is the patient[\u2019s] right to choose the method, and to choose the way how they would like to solve their fertility problems,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n With MRT added to standard IVF, \u201csomeone that’s 40 years old is now getting results similar to as if they were 25,\u201d says Kent McQueen, chief executive of IVF Asia Group in Makati City, Philippines. \u201cIt\u2019s like miracle results.\u201d<\/p>\n Improving the odds<\/p>\n The first baby conceived with MRT was born in 2016<\/a>, to a woman who had lost two children to a mitochondrial disease1<\/a>. Last year, in the first clinical trial of MRT to prevent the inheritance of mitochondrial diseases<\/a>, a separate research group reported the birth of eight healthy babies2<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mitochondria provide energy for cells<\/a>, leading to theories that mitochondria from young donors could also increase the success rate of IVF. That rate falls quickly with age. According to 2024 statistics from the US Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology<\/a>, transferring a first embryo to the womb of a woman aged 35\u201337 resulted in a live birth 26% of the time. But for women aged 41\u201342, the rate was 8%.<\/p>\n Scientists make precise gene edits to mitochondrial DNA for first time<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Some fertility clinics\u2018 websites assert that replacing the mitochondria in older egg cells will improve those odds. The clinics point to a study suggesting that MRT might help egg cells from subfertile mice to develop into healthy pups3<\/a>. \u201cWhile [a] cell ages, we are losing the capacity and the performance of the mitochondria,\u201d says Dorofeyeva. There is, she adds, \u201ca mitochondrial disorder associated with ageing. We can say for sure that this is a secondary mitochondrial disorder.\u201d<\/p>\n But Nature found only a few published studies that investigate using MRT as a treatment for infertility in humans.<\/p>\n A 2023 study4<\/a> examined MRT for 25 people without mitochondrial disease and reported that 3 of the 6 participants who were under the age of 36 gave birth to a baby. Of the 19 other participants, who were aged 36-39, only 3 did so. The study\u2019s lead author, Nuno Costa-Borges, chief executive of Embryotools in Barcelona, Spain, says that it\u2019s not possible to draw conclusions about MRT\u2019s efficacy from the study because of its small sample size. The study also lacked a control arm.<\/p>\n A 2019 study reported a single birth out of 30 participants. It also lacked a control arm and did not recommend the procedure5<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hopes and doubts<\/p>\n It is not clear how many clinics worldwide offer the procedure.<\/p>\n Nature identified clinics in the Bahamas, the Philippines, Albania and Ukraine that are advertising MRT online, sometimes simply calling it \u2018oocyte rejuvenation\u2019. A clinic called BioTexCom, based in Kyiv, offers packages starting at \u20ac6,500 (US$7,400) for a single transfer of an embryo created through MRT to a parent\u2019s womb.<\/p>\n BioTexCom did not respond to Nature\u2019s request for comment on scientists\u2019 view that charging patients for MRT is premature given the experimental state of the evidence.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d41586-026-01935-5_26239368.jpg\"\/)
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