Further tradgedy for Gordon Brown's family.

[benjo plz.]

While I'm not a Labour supporter (I don't support anyone tbh) it's hard to feel sorry at his families latest bad luck, his four month old son has cystic fibrosis, when you consider that not *that* long ago, their prematurely born daughter died. .

 

[Neoni]

While I'm not a Labour supporter (I don't support anyone tbh) it's hard to feel sorry at his families latest bad luck, his four month old son has cystic fibrosis, when you consider that not *that* long ago they had a miscarriage. .

so sad.

 

[kitten_caboodle]

While I'm not a Labour supporter (I don't support anyone tbh) it's hard to feel sorry at his families latest bad luck, his four month old son has cystic fibrosis, when you consider that not *that* long ago they had a miscarriage. .

Very sad for them

But their first baby was actually born - called Jennifer, she died after ten days. I remember seeing it on the news a lot and feeling so sad for them .
Must be awful for anyone.

 

[Gilly]

Christ thats awful

 

[Greenlizard0]

CF? That's nasty, and we're still a few years away from a viable gene therapy solution.

 

[Indy500]

Anyone else think having kids at that age (Brown is what, 55 now? and not sure how old his wife is) is likely to cause problems?

 

[iBankAllDay]

Horrible, horrible luck . Positive thoughts.

 

[Beren]

Damn

just damn. I thought I was having a vaguely bad time of it at the mo, nothing compared to that.

 

[Greenlizard0]

Anyone else think having kids at that age (Brown is what, 55 now? and not sure how old his wife is) is likely to cause problems?

Actually how old is Brown's wife? The older you become pregnant (after 30) the greater risk is associated with giving birth to a child with down's syndrome...

 

[Vonhelmet]

Anyone else think having kids at that age (Brown is what, 55 now? and not sure how old his wife is) is likely to cause problems?

CF is genetic, nothing to do with age.

 

[Indy500]

Actually how old is Brown's wife? The older you become pregnant (after 30) the greater risk is associated with giving birth to a child with down's syndrome...

Other complications are also more likely after about 35..I'm not saying it was the sole reason for CF (as that has a genetic link) but it could have contributed to difficulties. It was more of a comment about their problems in general.

CF is genetic, nothing to do with age.

Right, caused by 2 recessive genes (1 from each parent). But surely you're much less likely to conceive a healthy child at 55?

 

[Kol]

Hmm, surprised they only just learnt of it. There are such procedures as screening and therefore genetic counselling that goes along with this.

Very sad news though, it seems they're ridden with problems when having children.

For anyone who fancies a read of a reliable source:
PubMed article

 

[Vonhelmet]

Right, caused by 2 recessive genes (1 from each parent). But surely you're much less likely to conceive a healthy child at 55?

True, but age will have no bearing on cystic fibrosis. They could have had this child at 21 and the odds would have been the same.

 

[Indy500]

True, but age will have no bearing on cystic fibrosis. They could have had this child at 21 and the odds would have been the same.

Genetic mutations can occur over time. CF genes aren't just a single specific type.

 

[Vonhelmet]

Genetic mutations can occur over time. CF genes aren't just a single specific type.

I'm not a geneticist, but I'd say that the odds of a non-carrier's egg (or sperm) mutating is vastly less likely than them just being a carrier in the first place.

 

[Kol]

Well, it is one specific mutation per sé, the mutation of the CFTR gene, but I would hardly say I'm qualified to discuss it. I hated genetics and the applied physiology module I had to study put me to sleep.

In the course of studying a case of cystic fibrosis, Spence et al. (1988) discovered what appeared to be a case of uniparental disomy: the father did not contribute alleles to the propositus for markers near the CF locus or for centromeric markers on chromosome 7. High-resolution cytogenetic analysis was normal, and the result could not be explained by nonpaternity or a submicroscopic deletion. Uniparental disomy could be explained by various mechanisms such as monosomic conception with subsequent chromosome gain, trisomic conception followed by chromosome loss, postfertilization error, or gamete complementation. Patients with more than one genetic disorder might be suspected of having isodisomy, which should also be suspected in cases of an apparent new mutation leading to a recessive disorder when only 1 parent is heterozygous, and in cases of females affected with X-linked recessive disorders. Engel (1980) appears to have originated the concept of uniparental disomy and resulting isodisomy. Voss et al. (1988, 1989) also demonstrated uniparental disomy for chromosome 7 in a patient with cystic fibrosis.

Interesting. When I studied CF, I was never aware of this. I must do more reading when I study things. Might seem irrelevant ot most people, but someone maybe interested in this.

 

[Indy500]

Well, it is one specific mutation per sé, the mutation of the CFTR gene, but I would hardly say I'm qualified to discuss it. I hated genetics and the applied physiology module I had to study put me to sleep.

CFTR is a complex protein, so its hard to say X change in it will cause CF and Y change wont...or it may even just be the protein folding into the wrong shape without being chemically altered.

 

[Kol]

CFTR is a complex protein, so its hard to say X change in it will cause CF and Y change wont...

Fair point. Proteins by their very nature are highly complex, so I'd agree with you there.

 

[Deep]

That is really bad, it must be really hard on all his family

 

[MehulLakhani]

The risks of having a child with CF increase very slightly with age. However, I think what some of the people posting in the thread are thinking of is Downs syndrome. For every 5 years that a couple put off having children, the risk increase by 300%.

R

Mehul