How Do People Get Thalassemia




 Thalassemia is a hereditary condition. 
The genes received from one's parents before birth determine whether a person will have thalassemia. Thalassemia can not be caught or to another person transferred. The clinical severity of thalassemia varies tremendously depending on the exact nature of the genes that a person stand.

How are genes inherited?

 At the moment of conception, a person receiving a set of genes from the mother (egg) and a corresponding set of genes from the father (sperm). 
The combined effects of many genes determine a few characteristics (hair color and height for example). Properties determined by a combination of genes often gradations in size (the difference between Michael Keaton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for instance). Other features are determined by a single gene pair (a person's gender, for example). A person is either a biological male or female.
 The inheritance in patients with thalassemia is complicated because two sets of genes on different chromosomes cooperate to produce hemoglobin. 
A defect anywhere in the complex can produce thalassemia. The expression of thalassemia seems therefore that the better informed, with gradations in effect.

Inheritance of hemoglobin

 The genes involved in thalassemia control the production of a protein in red cells called hemoglobin. 
Hemoglobin binds oxygen in the lungs and releases it when the red cells reach peripheral tissues like the liver. The binding and release of oxygen by hemoglobin is essential for survival.
Each hemoglobin molecule contains four subunit proteins. 
Two of the subunit proteins known as the Alpha and the two are called beta. Hemoglobin binds oxygen properly and set only when two alpha subunits are linked to two beta subunits. A pair of genes on chromosome # 16, production of the alpha subunits of hemoglobin control. A single gene on chromosome # 11 controls the production of hemoglobin beta subunit

 All cells contain pairs of idential chromosomes, one from the father and the mother. 
Each chromosome contains thousands of genes in order appear. As shown in Figure 1, each person has two beta globin genes, one from the father and the mother. Since each chromosome # 16 has two alpha globin genes, each person has four of these genes. One chromosome # 16 comes from the father, so that two alpha globin genes to the offspring. One chromosome # 16 comes from the mother and two alpha globin genes contribute to the offspring.

 A complete hemoglobin molecule four subunits: two alpha and beta. 
The two beta globin genes also contribute to the production of beta globin subunit proteins. The alpha globin genes together produce an amount of alpha globin protein that exactly the beta globin protein equals. Since there are four alpha globin genes compared with two beta globin genes, each alpha globin not only produce about half as much protein as a beta globin gene. This keeps the total production of equal subunits of each set of chromosomes

 Thalassemia occurs when one or more of the genes failed to produce proteins, leading to a shortage of one of the subunits. 
As one of the beta-globin genes, then the condition is called beta thalassemia. Beta thalassemia, therefore, is due to a shortage of beta subunits. If an alpha globin gene, the condition called alpha thalassemia. In this case, a deficiency of alpha subunits occur.