Tuesday, June 19
Causes
It should be noted that hemophilia is almost always caused by a genetic defect.
The reason that males have a tendency to acquire the disease is due to the fact
that it is passed on VIA the X chromosome. Females have 2 X chromosomes. If
there is a defect in one, provided the other chromosome is not defective it
will cause no problems in the offspring. Unfortunately, males (usually) only
have 1 X chromosome, therefore if it is defective they suffer from this
disease. Hemophilia can occur in women, but the male must have hemophilia and
the female must and least be a carrier. If this occurs, the chance of having a
female born with hemophilia is 25%, and the chance of having a male with the
defect is 25%. A healthy man who marries a woman that carries the hemophilia
gene has a 50% chance that his son with this woman will have hemophilia, and a
50% chance that his daughter will be a carrier of this gene. A hemophiliac who
marries a healthy woman will have healthy sons, but his daughters will all
carry the hemophilia gene. On a very rare occasion a girl could be born with
hemophilia, but for that, the father needs to have hemophilia and the mother
carry the defective gene. It is possible to develop hemophilia. Very rarely a mutation in the gene responsible
for hemophilia may occur due to extremely poor nutrition (starvation), auto
immune diseases, certain cancers, etc.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment