Have you ever seen a person with eyes that barely have any color, yellowish or white color skin, and little or no hair color? If you have, this person has a genetic disorder called Albinism.
What is Albinism?
You might think Albinism sounds like 'Albino'.
If you did, you guessed right. Albinism is a genetic disorder that makes the skin have little or no pigmentation.. This is a genetic disorder that can be passed on through out the family. This disorder makes the person have difficulty seeing, may cause blindness, lack of pigmentation of the skin, and little or no color in the iris of the eye.
Does it limit life span?
Albinism doesn’t really affect the life span, however if you had a different type of albinism it does affect your life span, which is Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (Here is a link for more information on Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome http://patients.thoracic.org/information-series/en/resources/what-is-hermansky-pudlak-syndrome.pdf ) can shorten the life span because of lung disease or bleeding problems. But people with albinism may be limited in their outdoor activities because they can't tolerate the sun.
How common is this?
There are over 70 people are Albinism carriers, and 1 in 20,000 people have Oculocutaneous albinism. (For more information about Oculocutaneous albinism got to http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/oculocutaneous-albinism).
Mode Of Inheritance
The mode of inheritance of this disorder is through the X chromosome, and occurs almost exclusively in males. If parents are wondering if there offspring will have this disorder they will have to got to the doctors and talk to a genetic to find out if they can pass this on or if they have this disorder. This disorder is Atuosomal Recessive.
If you did, you guessed right. Albinism is a genetic disorder that makes the skin have little or no pigmentation.. This is a genetic disorder that can be passed on through out the family. This disorder makes the person have difficulty seeing, may cause blindness, lack of pigmentation of the skin, and little or no color in the iris of the eye.
Does it limit life span?
Albinism doesn’t really affect the life span, however if you had a different type of albinism it does affect your life span, which is Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (Here is a link for more information on Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome http://patients.thoracic.org/information-series/en/resources/what-is-hermansky-pudlak-syndrome.pdf ) can shorten the life span because of lung disease or bleeding problems. But people with albinism may be limited in their outdoor activities because they can't tolerate the sun.
How common is this?
There are over 70 people are Albinism carriers, and 1 in 20,000 people have Oculocutaneous albinism. (For more information about Oculocutaneous albinism got to http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/oculocutaneous-albinism).
Mode Of Inheritance
The mode of inheritance of this disorder is through the X chromosome, and occurs almost exclusively in males. If parents are wondering if there offspring will have this disorder they will have to got to the doctors and talk to a genetic to find out if they can pass this on or if they have this disorder. This disorder is Atuosomal Recessive.
Detection and Treatment
When can a parent know if there offspring has this disorder, or if they have it themselves? You can detect this if you/they have trouble seeing outdoors, in school, driving, etc. and/or burn easily in the sun, they have no pigmentation in the skin, have little or no eye color (have the color a very light blue or gray) their eyes are cross eyed, or they can got to the doctors, or talk to their family member about there family history. There is no treatment that will make the person skin and eyes to have color, however they can only protect themselves from the suns UV rays, by wearing clothing that will keep them from getting burnt, wearing sunglasses, and use sunblock since they can burn easily. Below is a Punnet Square of an Carrier male of this disorder and a female carrier.