Four women have given birth to five children through an experimental in vitro fertilization treatment in which a mother's own mitochondria are injected into her eggs, a fertility clinic in Osaka said Wednesday.
"Through the injection of mitochondria, the quality of fertilized eggs improved and the pregnancy rate was increased," said Yoshiharu Morimoto, chairman of the clinic, adding the actual mechanism of improvement was not yet known.
The clinic said it will monitor the health of the children until they reach the age 5 to confirm the safety of the treatment. The children, two of whom are twins, were born between February and June to the women aged between 27 and 36.