Question

Garrin is a 7-year-old boy with cystic fibrosis. The disease is caused by a genetic defect on chromosome 7. As a result, there is a defective production of protein chloride channels in epithelial cell membranes. One effect of the disease is the production of thick mucous that accumulates in Garrin’s bronchial passages. As a result, he attends a physiotherapy clinic regularly for chest percussion treatments to loosen the respiratory mucous.

Answer 1

Answer:

Below, is the full question as the original is incomplete.

“Garrin is a 7-year-old boy with cystic fibrosis. The disease is caused by a genetic defect on chromosome 7. As a result, there is a defective production of protein chloride channels in epithelial cell membranes.

  One effect of the disease is the production of thick mucous that accumulates in Garrin's bronchial passages. As a result, he attends a physiotherapy clinic regularly for chest percussion treatments to loosen the respiratory mucous.

  Garrin's disease is hereditary. What does it mean to have a genetic defect on chromosome 7 in terms of DNA, genes, and chromosomes”?

The answer is that heredity has a lot to do with genes as this are the unit saddled with the responsibility to transfer information from one generation to the other. These are located in DNAs which in turn are located in chromosomes which are quite numerous but the defective gene test on the seventh chromosome (as regards cystic fibrosis).

Chloride channels are integral ion channels which has a major function of crossing ions through the lipid bilayer and also aids the secretary cells in their functions

In cystic fibrosis, There is a retention of ions which increases intracellular osmotic pressure as there are more ions in the cell in relation to the extracellular environment. As a result, water moves into the cell, leaving mucous secretions thick and viscous and this explains what Garrin passes through.