Will Alport Syndrome Pass on to the Children

As we have known, Alport Syndrome is an inherited kidney disorder. Then the question as to how to avoid the inheritance and give birth to a healthy baby becomes an concerned issues in the sufferers who expect to have a baby. There are several genetic types of Alport Syndrome and there will be different inheritance possibility in various cases, and not necessarily in all cases the disease pass on to children. The following will introduce more on this topic to make it clear.

Clinically X-linked Alport syndrome is the most common form, accounting for 80 percent of the disease. X-linked Alport syndrome results from mutation of the gene that produces the alpha-5 chain of type IV collagen, which is located on the X chromosome. Males have only one X chromosome, and they pass their X chromosome only to their daughters but not to their sons. In other words, a man with X-linked Alport syndrome will pass down his disease to all his daughters but his sons can not get his disease. As for a woman with X-linked Alport Syndrome, in every pregnant she will have 50% percent to pass the disease to his child, whether it is a baby or a girl. Hence, if a man has X-linked Alport syndrome, he should avoid giving birth to daughters or marrying a female patient.

Another 15 percent patients have Autosomal Recessive form of Alport Syndrome (ARAS). Different from the X-linked form, ARAS occurs because of gene mutations on both copies of the chromosome 2. A person with ARAS can pass only one of the mutated gene to his child, so his risk of passing this type of disease to his child is almost zero. One chance for the child to get this form disease is when each parent passes one mutated gene copy to form the mutated gene pair.

The remaining five percent people may get Autosomal Dominant Alport Syndrome. These people have one mutant copy of the alpha-3 or alpha-4 gene. People with this type will have blood in urine, but without other symptoms such as proteinuria and high blood pressure. If a parent has this type, there will be 50 chance of giving the disease to the baby, whether boy or girl. If both parents have this form of disease, then the inheritance chance will be 75 percent.

Those with Alport Syndrome and plan to have a baby will be suggested to do gene testing before the pregnancy and ask the doctor what could be done. This will help to reduce risks of passing the disease and giving birth to a healthy baby. If you are in great worry and want to learn more, you may contact us directly and we will be ready to help.