X-linked agammaglobulinemia pathophysiology
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Genetics
The gene Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) plays an essential role in the maturation B cells in the bone marrow, and when mutated, immature pre-B lymphocytes are unable to develop into mature B cells that leave the bone marrow into the blood stream. The disorder is X-linked (it is on the X chromosome), and is almost entirely limited to the sons of asymptomatic female carriers .[1] This is because males have only one copy of the X chromosome, while females have two copies; one normal copy of an X chromosome can compensate in for mutations in the other X chromosome. Females carriers have a 50% chance of giving birth to a male child with XLA.
An XLA patient will pass on the gene, and all of his daughters will be XLA carriers, meaning that any male grandchildren from an XLA patient's daughters have a 50% chance of inheriting XLA. A female XLA patient can only arise as the child of an XLA patient and a carrier mother. XLA can also rarely result from a spontaneous mutation in the fetus of a non-carrier mother.
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