Embryonic test developed for hemophilia

LONDON, Jul 11, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- British doctors are using a new method of screening embryos for hemophilia to make sure the hereditary disease hasn't been passed to a fetus.

The technique ensures a mother who carries the hereditary disease, in which a sufferer bleeds uncontrollably, has not passed on the faulty gene, the Telegraph reported Monday.

Hemophilia A is the most prevalent and serious form of the disease, caused by a mutation of the gene responsible for factor VIII, a protein made mainly in the liver that plays a role in how blood clots.

Researcher Robert Winston and colleagues from Hammersmith Hospital in west London announced in 1990 they had developed pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, PGD, a way to test IVF embryos so only those free of a serious defect were implanted in the mother.

Now Professors Ted Tuddenham, Kate Michaelides and colleagues at the Clinical Sciences Centre in Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's Hospital, have developed a variant of PGD to test for hemophilia.

"We now have the means to end hemophilia in an affected blood line," Tuddenham told the Telegraph.

The new technique will also be able to detect genes that raise the risk of cancer.