Test tube babies ‘at greater birth defects risk’
February 22nd, 2010 - 2:08 pm ICT by ANIWashington, Feb 22 (ANI): Test tube babies are at a higher risk of certain types of birth defects, a new study suggests.
These defects can lead to obesity, hypertension and type 2 diabetes later in life.
Carmen Sapienza, a geneticist at Temple University School of Medicine, investigates the effect of the environment on genes by comparing one type of chromosome modification, called “DNA methylation” between children conceived in the traditional way with children born as a result of assisted reproduction.
He said: “We found that 5-10 percent of these chromosome modifications were different in children born through assisted reproduction, and this altered the expression of nearby genes.
“But we have not yet distinguished whether this is caused by assisted reproductive technologies or other factors such as the couple’s infertility.”
Since some of the affected genes are involved in the development of fat tissue and the metabolism of glucose, Sapienza says it will be important to monitor these children long-term to find if they have higher rates of obesity or diabetes.
He notes that although there were measurable differences in DNA methylation and gene expression between the two groups, only a small fraction of the assisted reproduction children were found to be outside the “normal” range. (ANI)
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