The World’s First In Vitro Puppies Have Been Born

Don’t you just want to hug them?  

An adorable, healthy litter of puppies was born by in vitro fertilization (IVF) — representing the first time this technology has ever been successfully applied to dogs.

The process involved transferring 19 embryos to a host female dog, and she later gave birth to seven puppies — two from a beagle mother and cocker spaniel father, and five from two pairings of beagle mothers and fathers.

“Since the mid-1970s, people have been trying to do this in a dog and have been unsuccessful,” said co-author Alex Travis, associate professor of reproductive biology in the Baker Institute for Animal Health in Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

SEE ALSO: Should We Use CRISPR to Edit Human Embryos?

So how did the researchers collect and fertilize eggs from the dogs?  Timing was key.  Through a lot of trial and error, lead author Jennifer Nagashima, Travis and their team from Cornell University collected mature eggs from a female dog’s oviduct (similar to fallopian tubes in humans).  They then had to figure out how to simulate the way that a female dog’s reproductive tract prepares sperm for fertilization.  It turns out, adding magnesium to the cell culture in the lab properly prepares the sperm.  According to Travis, “now we achieve success in fertilization rates at 80 to 90 percent.”

The researchers then had to freeze the embryos — allowing for control of when the embryos were inserted into the host dog’s oviduct.  One of the first puppies delivered was appropriately named “Klondike,” born from an embryo that had been frozen since 2013.

Now some people may claim this is “genetically modifying” dogs, but if you think about it, how is this any different than in vitro fertilization used for human reproduction?  This technique could also be used for wildlife conservation (storing semen and eggs), and saving endangered wild canines from extinction.  “We can freeze and bank sperm, and use it for artificial insemination,” explained Travis.  “We can also freeze oocytes, but in the absence of in vitro fertilization, we couldn’t use them.  Now we can use this technique to conserve the genetics of endangered species.”

Not only that, they can also use this technique for gene-editing of dogs to eradicate certain diseases and disorders, such as lymphoma in Golden Retrievers, urinary stones in Dalmatians, and hip dysplasia in German Shepherds — all results of improper inbreeding by humans in the past.  "With a combination of gene editing techniques and IVF, we can potentially prevent genetic disease before it starts," Travis said.

Technological advances of gene-editing in dogs could also lead to medical breakthroughs for humans.  Since dogs and humans share many of the same diseases, dogs may offer a “powerful tool for understanding the genetic basis of diseases,” said Travis.

Oh, those faces!