Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Earl Howe on 23 June 2010 (WA 182–3) and Baroness Garden of Frognal on 5 November (WA 168), whether they regard pronuclear transfer as a form of somatic cell transfer; whether eggs provided to the Medical Research Council-funded study Improving the Efficiency of Human Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) for the purposes of research into SCNT were used for research into pronuclear transfer; and whether it remains the case that gametes provided by patients for a particular project have not been authorised for use in separate research.[HL3172]
Answer
The Government regard the technical procedures associated with somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) and pronuclear transfer (PNT) as biologically very distinct. However, they share a number of technical challenges, in the sense that both involve removal and transplantation of nuclear DNA.
A defining feature of SCNT is that the resulting embryos are genetically identical to the person from whom the somatic cell is derived. By contrast, the genetic identity of a PNT embryo is unique to the sperm and egg from which the pronuclei are formed.
A second feature of SCNT embryos is that the somatic cell DNA must be reprogrammed to revert to an embryonic pattern of gene expression. In the case of PNT, the DNA within the pronuclei is derived from the sperm and the egg, and is therefore already poised to embark on an embryonic pattern of gene expression.
The technical similarities between the two procedures mean that lessons from PNT can inform SCNT research and vice versa. However, from a biological perspective, SCNT is more challenging than PNT.
The research team at the University of Newcastle have not used any eggs provided under the Medical Research Council-funded study Improving the Efficiency of Human Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) for the purposes of research into PNT.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is the UK's independent regulator overseeing the use of human gametes and embryos in fertility
treatment and research. All research in this area is subject to ethical approval granted by the Local Research Ethics Committee and a licence granted by the HFEA. The HFEA have advised that on no occasion has it permitted embryos or gametes provided by patients for a particular research project to be used in separate research. The HFEA has advised me that this remains the case.