РефератыИностранный языкThThalasemmia Essay Research Paper Over 2000000 American

Thalasemmia Essay Research Paper Over 2000000 American

Thalasemmia Essay, Research Paper


Over 2,000,000 American’s are carriers of the genetic trait for Thalassemia, a fatal blood


disease. It is also the most common single gene disorder in the world. This disease which


prevents normal hemoglobin production in the blood, is curently uncurable, and until


recently only let its victim live no longer then the first decade of their life. Thalassemia is a


serious genetic disease that afflicts children and adults all around the world.


In order to understand Thalassemia, one must understand the physiolgy of blood.


Blood, the carrier of nutrition and waste in our bodies, contains a protein called


hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is solely responsible for the transport of oxygen from the lungs


to cells through out the body. It is imperative that hemoglobin is readily avaible in the


blood to ensure cells can function properly. There are three types of hemoglobin. One is


Hemoglobin A, which is the most prevalent in adults. Hemoglobin A is composed of two


alpha globins and two beta globins. There are two mior hemoglobins names A2 and F.


Hemoglobin A2 is composed of 2 alpha and two delta globins. Finally, hemoglobin F,


predominatntly found in infants, is composed of 2 alpha globins and 2 gamma globins. In a


normal human being the globins that

make up hemoglobin would be produced at certain


times in a human’s life. Initially, while it is a fetus, the human would contain high amounts


of hemoglobin F, and thus be producing alpha and gamma globins in majority. However


once a baby is born, gamma globin production drops and is countered by beta globin


production, thus allowing hemoglobin A to be created. Delta globins also increase once a


human is growing but they are rather insignificantly low in numbers.


In a thalassemia patient, the genes that code for the production of certain globlins


are either mutated or destroyed. This misinformation in the genetic code, leads to an


abnormal ratio of globins leaving too many unpaired globins and the expression of


thalassemia. In thalamessia, usually one type of globins is produced at normal levels while


is pair is not. The globin produced in normal levels and those that do not becom paired


for red cell aggregates which prove to be harmful to red blood cells. These aggregrates,


destroy the cell membrance of corpuscles which leads to hemolysis, the destruction of red


cells, or eeythropoices, the abnormal growth of red blod cells. The amount at which these


red cell aggregrates and the properties of them define which type and the serverity of


thalassemia a patient has.

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