Rapport final
Mitochondrial DNA variants in ART and early human development.
The first part of this research project was to find the cause why children born after assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have an increased risk of having a lower birth weight and to develop cardiometabolic disorders later in life. We hypothesized that variants in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) could play a role in the outcome of ART children. We found that the children born after ART more frequently carry a certain mtDNA variant composition that is linked to a lower birth weight percentile. This variant composition originated from both maternal inheritance and newly induced variants. We investigated if those newly induced variants could be caused by the hormonal stimulation that women often receive in an ART cycle. However, we could not find any correlations. The second part of this research project studied the timing and extent of mtDNA mosaicism in human development. Here, we found that mtDNA mosaicism is already visible on the third day of embryonic development.