Transferencia nuclear, última tecnología para prevenir las enfermedades mitocondriales

Mitochondrial diseases are caused by the alteration in one or more proteins located in the mitochondria and involved in cellular metabolism. These diseases can be caused by mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mt DNA) or by mutations in nuclear genes that code for proteins involved in t he proper functioning of t he mitochondria. Diseases caused by the mutation in mt DNA, follow a pattern of maternal inheritance. Due to the great complexity and variety of clinical sy mptoms, there isn’t an effective therapeutic treatment . For this reason, nuclear transfer techniques have been proposed, witht he aim of preventing the transmission of mutated mtDNA. These techniques are also called mitochondrial replacement and currently, there are different methodologies: germinal vesicle transfer, meiotic, pronuclear and polar corpuscle spindle. In this review we will see these techniques in detail, as well as the current results in clinical trials in humans.