Ro. Fisch et al., GESTATIONAL CARRIER - A REPRODUCTIVE HAVEN FOR OFFSPRING OF MOTHERS WITH PHENYLKETONURIA (PKU) - AN ALTERNATIVE THERAPY FOR MATERNAL PKU, Journal of inherited metabolic disease, 16(6), 1993, pp. 957-961
Maternal phenylketonuria, PKU, has a detrimental effect on embryogenes
is. Infant pathology is independent of fetal genotype, but is directly
correlated with excessive phenylalaninaemia throughout pregnancy. Alt
hough normal children have been delivered by affected mothers who eith
er had benign hyperphenylalaninaemia or in whom strict diet has appare
ntly maintained maternal phenylalaninaemia in the low normal range fro
m before conception, more abnormal than normal births have been report
ed. In addition, attempts at dietary management are often unsuccessful
; most reported cases documented various severe pathological consequen
ces of maternal PKU. Currently available methods provide viable altern
ative treatment. In vitro fertilization using the parental gametes, fo
llowed by implantation of the pre-embryo in a surrogate mother, would
avoid a metabolic environment impairing normal development, and theref
ore should be recommended as alternative therapy for potential mothers
with PKU.