Cystic Fibrosis: The Unseen Disease
Many people walk through life with us that sometimes one has no real cues about. In biology, one learns that what one actually visualizes about a person is called their phenotype. However, what and how the person is made up is called their genotype. Each person’s genotype is created at the time of fertilization when the man’s biological material, called the sperm, unites with the female genetic material for life, called the egg.
The man’s genetic material carries one-half of the inherited genetic material for the newborn, or the haploid number of chromosomes. Likewise, the female contributes her haploid number of chromosomes to the new born child. The newborn receives half of his or her genetic material from both parents.
The sex cells that the newborn inherits from either parent are produced in a process in each of the parent’s bodies called meiosis. A normal human being carries 46 chromosomes, also called the diploid number of chromosomes, or two pairs of 23 chromosomes inherited from the parents. Each parent contributes 23 pairs of chromosomes to the new offspring.
The chromosomes contain the genetic plan for how the body builds each part of the body. For example, the dominant gene for hair color is black. So, if each parent contributes a gene for black, and the other a gene for blond hair, then the child will inherit the black hair color (the phenotype). The child will still have the blond gene in their genotype but the black hair color was dominant over the blond hair, so the black hair is produced by the body and takes precedence over the recessive gene, blond hair. Many traits in the body are regulated by the dominance of these genes over recessive genes although not all traits that are exhibited occur with this simplicity.
In the genetic disorder Cystic Fibrosis, (CF), inherited from the parents, the children have a normal appearance or phenotype. In this terminal disease with yet no known cure, one inherits the disease when two parents who may be carriers of this recessive disorder each contribute their recessive trait for CF to the child. Two carriers of CF who do not have the disease have a 25% chance (or a one in four chance) of having a CF child.
People who inherit CF have an exocrine gland disorder where their bodies produce an excess amount of mucous material inside their bodies. This highly viscous material builds up in their lungs as well. And, as the genes are expressed, no matter how much doctors try to drain this excess fluid out of the lungs, the person drowns in their own fluids.
People born with CF are not contagious as one can only get the disease through genetic inheritance.
There are many medicines which help people with CF open their airways called bronchodilators. However, they can be overpowered by this disease anytime and anywhere usually between birth and 40 years of age.
