Albinism :: essays research papers

Page:1 Albinism is a very serious disease that could end up in death. Albinism is a recessive inherited defect in melanin, which is metabolism in which pigment is absent from skin, hair, and eyes. Albinism in hair, skin, and eyes is called oculocutaneous albinism. Humans that have oculocotaneous albinism are not able to produce melanin. These people have white, yellow, or yellow brown hair, very light ( usually blue ) eyes, and very pale skin. Their eyes may appear pink because they have very little pigment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Albinism just in the eyes is called ocular albinism. Which is a dark biological pigment that is formed as an end product of the metabolism of the amino and tyrosine. People with ocular albinism, which only the eye lacks melanin pigment, while everything else appears normal. People who have this have a variety of the eye disorders because of the lack of pigment impairs normal eye development. These effected are extremely sensitive to bright light. Treatment for ocular albinism includes the use of visual aids and surgery for strabismus.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Albinism is very rare in humans. There is a one to seventeen thousand chance that a person will have Albinism. Because of albinism if a person with the disease is exposed to ultraviolet rays they get very sick or get cancer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Albinism occurs in all races, from white, black, to asian. Regardless of skin color the people are still paler than normal people. Their hair is white and they have pinkish red eyes. Page:2 There is another type of albinism which is called Hermansk-Pudlak syndrome. In the is type of the disease there could be problems with bleeding, and with lung and bowel disease as well. This is a very rare and uncommon type of albinism.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For almost all types of Albinism both parents or mates must carry an albinism gene in order for their child to have albinism. Because the body has two sets of genes, a person may have normal pigmentation but carry the albinism gene. If a person has one normal gene and one albinism gene that is still enough to pass the disease on to their children. Even if both parents have the albinism gene it does not mean they have the sickness. The baby will have a one out of four chance of getting the disease. This is inherited by autosomal recessive inheritance.