Sickle Cell Anemia

Sickle Cell Anemia
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Explain the condition and the alleles of the person with the condition and why it is a serious problem.
Sickle cell anemia is an inherited serious disorder that affects the oxygen-carrying cells of the body by reducing their oxygen carrying capacity. The normal red blood cells are naturally disc shaped and contain sufficient iron rich protein – hemoglobin that carries oxygen from the lungs to other parts of the body and carbon IV oxide from various cells to the lungs (Bjorklund, 2011). Sickle cells have abnormal hemoglobin and the cells take the shape of a crescent or of a sickle. Due to the crescent-shape, these cells are sticky resulting to frequent blockage of blood flow to different organs hence making the condition dangerous and painful. The abnormal shape of the cells reduces the carrying capacity of oxygen and at the same time can cause hemolysis of red blood cells. This too poses a serious problem to the various organs that earnestly requires oxygen to survive. Moreover, the biconcave shape of normal red blood cells is meant to move in tiny blood vessels into various cells to take in oxygen and carry out carbon IV oxide. On contrary, the abnormal and inflexible sickle shape red blood cells get stuck in the blood vessels hence causing dangerous medical impediments. The allele responsible the disorder is found on chromosome 11p15 (Jones, 2008). In heterozygous cases, the gene locus contains two different alleles of the gene hence person becomes a carrier of the defective gene. On the other hand, homozygous patients with the condition have two identical allele of the defective gene on their both homologous chromosomes.
What type of chromosomal disorder causes the condition?
The human hemoglobin contains Alpha globin and Beta globin subunits...