Egg Sharing for Research: A Successful Outcome for Patients and Researchers

Choudhary, Meenakshi; Nesbitt, M; Burgess, Linda; Hyslop, Louise; Herbert, Mary; Murdoch, Alison

doi:10.1016/j.stem.2012.02.001

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…We therefore used freshly harvested oocytes donated specifically for this research. The majority of oocytes (n = 239) were obtained from women (n = 26) undergoing IVF treatment who donated up to half of their oocytes, in return for a contribution from research funds towards the cost of their treatment29. A small number of oocytes (n = 26) were also donated by women (n = 9) who had oocytes harvested to reduce the risk of multiple pregnancy following ovarian stimulation and intra-uterine insemination.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our results, along with more recent technical advances in human NT9, provide proof of principle for the use of NT to develop isogenic ES cell-based therapies for the treatment of degenerative disease associated with mtDNA mutations. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the problem of obtaining human oocytes can be overcome by donation through an “egg-sharing” scheme, which has a high level of acceptance among women undergoing IVF treatment2941.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Consenting women shared if ≥6 oocytes were harvested. Women, from whom 5 or fewer oocytes were collected, did not donate eggs but still received subsidised treatment29. Oocytes were collected by ultrasound-guided follicle aspiration.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Therapeutic potential of somatic cell nuclear transfer for degenerative disease caused by mitochondrial DNA mutations

Greggains

Lister

Tuppen

et al. 2014

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Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) hold much promise in the quest for personalised cell therapies. However, the persistence of founder cell mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations limits the potential of iPSCs in the development of treatments for mtDNA disease. This problem may be overcome by using oocytes containing healthy mtDNA, to induce somatic cell nuclear reprogramming. However, the extent to which somatic cell mtDNA persists following fusion with human oocytes is unknown. Here we show that human nuclear transfer (NT) embryos contain very low levels of somatic cell mtDNA. In light of a recent report that embryonic stem cells can be derived from human NT embryos, our results highlight the therapeutic potential of NT for mtDNA disease, and underscore the importance of using human oocytes to pursue this goal.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Therapeutic potential of somatic cell nuclear transfer for degenerative disease caused by mitochondrial DNA mutations

Greggains

Lister

Tuppen

et al. 2014

Sci Rep

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“…Few interviewees (who are very experienced at living with uncertainty) engaged in detailed calculations of risk; most focused instead on their hope (itself a form of uncertainty: Eliot & Olver, 2007) that extra treatment will increase the chances of pregnancy. Some reassurance that that hope is not misplaced comes from recent data from the NFC, not available at the time of interviews, indicating that the ‘live birth rate per treatment started’, for NESR egg providers, was 37.25% and 29.4% for matched comparators (Choudhary et al., 2012). However, the analogy of trying to juggle on a rollercoaster supports Roberts and Throsby's (2008) questioning of the claim that the NESR is a ‘win–win’ for both volunteers and researchers, exposing this as a gloss on volunteers' actual experiences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Extensive lobbying in the north east of England, including by the NFC, led to the five local NHS funders implementing the national guidelines. This might have reduced the number of egg providers for the NESR; their target was 80, but they recruited 42 (Choudhary et al., 2012). …”

Section: Volunteers' Views and Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Juggling on a rollercoaster? Gains, loss and uncertainties in IVF patients' accounts of volunteering for a U.K. ‘egg sharing for research’ scheme

Haimes¹

2013

Social Science & Medicine

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The past decade has seen a growth in demand for human eggs for stem cell related research and, more recently, for mitochondrial research. That demand has been accompanied by global debates over whether women should be encouraged, by offers of payments, in cash or kind, to provide eggs. Few of these debates have been informed by empirical evidence, let alone by the views of women themselves. This article addresses that gap in knowledge by presenting findings from a UK investigation, conducted 2008–2011, which is the first systematic study of women volunteering to provide eggs under such circumstances. This article focuses on the views and experiences of 25 IVF patients who volunteered for the Newcastle ‘egg sharing for research’ scheme (NESR), in exchange for reduced IVF fees. This was an interview based study, designed to gain understandings of volunteers' perspectives and reasoning. The interviews show that volunteers approached the scheme as a way of accessing more treatment in pursuit of their goal of having a baby, against a landscape of inadequate state provision of treatment and expensive private treatment. The process of deciding to volunteer raised a wide range of uncertainties about the consequent gains and losses, for women already in the uncertain world of the ‘IVF rollercoaster’. However, interviewees preferred to have the option of the NESR, than not, and they juggled the numerous uncertainties with skill and resilience. The article is as revealing of the ongoing challenges of the UK IVF bio-economy as it is of egg provision. This article adds to the growing body of knowledge of the contributions of tissue providers to the global bio-economy. It also contributes to several areas of wider sociological interest, including debates on the social management of ‘uncertainty’ and discussions at the interface of sociology and ethics.

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Concise Reviews: Assisted Reproductive Technologies to Prevent Transmission of Mitochondrial DNA Disease

et al. 2015

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While the fertilized egg inherits its nuclear DNA from both parents, the mitochondrial DNA is strictly maternally inherited. Cells contain multiple copies of mtDNA, each of which encodes 37 genes, which are essential for energy production by oxidative phosphorylation. Mutations can be present in all, or only in some copies of mtDNA. If present above a certain threshold, pathogenic mtDNA mutations can cause a range of debilitating and fatal diseases. Here, we provide an update of currently available options and new techniques under development to reduce the risk of transmitting mtDNA disease from mother to child. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a commonly used technique to detect mutations in nuclear DNA, is currently being offered to determine the mutation load of embryos produced by women who carry mtDNA mutations. The available evidence indicates that cells removed from an eight-cell embryo are predictive of the mutation load in the entire embryo, indicating that PGD provides an effective risk reduction strategy for women who produce embryos with low mutation loads. For those who do not, research is now focused on meiotic nuclear transplantation techniques to uncouple the inheritance of nuclear and mtDNA. These approaches include transplantation of any one of the products or female meiosis (meiosis II spindle, or either of the polar bodies) between oocytes, or the transplantation of pronuclei between fertilized eggs. In all cases, the transferred genetic material arises from a normal meiosis and should therefore, not be confused with cloning. The scientific progress and associated regulatory issues are discussed. Stem Cells 2015;33:639–645

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Egg Sharing for Research: A Successful Outcome for Patients and Researchers

Cited by 14 publications

References 5 publications

Therapeutic potential of somatic cell nuclear transfer for degenerative disease caused by mitochondrial DNA mutations

Therapeutic potential of somatic cell nuclear transfer for degenerative disease caused by mitochondrial DNA mutations

Juggling on a rollercoaster? Gains, loss and uncertainties in IVF patients' accounts of volunteering for a U.K. ‘egg sharing for research’ scheme

Concise Reviews: Assisted Reproductive Technologies to Prevent Transmission of Mitochondrial DNA Disease

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