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Osteogenesis Imperfecta Research Paper

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Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a disease that causes your bones to break easily, it is also known as brittle bone disease, fragilitas ossium and vrolik disease. OI typically is considered to be a dominantly inherited disorder. Most cases of OI that have been reported have an autosomal dominant pattern. Many people who have this disease have it because they have inherited a mutation from their parent. In some cases, it may have an autosomal recessive pattern. This would be cased due to both parents carrying one copy of the gene. The genes affected are COL1A1, COL1A2, CRTAP, and P3H1.
The COL1A1 gene provides instruction for making part of a large molecule called type 1 collagen. Collagens are used to strengthen and support many tissues in the body such as cartilage, bone, tendon, skin, and the white part of the eye. Type 1 collagen is the most abundant form of collagen in the human body. The defect in the structure of type 1 collagen weakens connective tissues, particularly bone. This results in the characteristic features of OI. The genes CRTAP and P3H1 are genes that …show more content…

The collagen is important in this process because it is looked at as the “concrete” or “framework” that holds the bones together. Not having enough or a good quality collagen results in the bone being more brittle then those who do not have OI. This is what causes the bones to break more easily, a slight bump to their arm could break it rather than someone who doesn’t have it would have to be in a form of an accident that would cause more serious damage to the bone. This doesn’t just affect your bones, in fact in some cases it is noticeable in the human eye. Collagen shows up in sclera, which is the white portion of your eye. Having collagen that doesn’t work properly can cause your eye to have a blue or grey hue in portion of the eyes. This goes hand in hand with the symptoms of

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