How do people get cystic fibrosis?
A. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease. That means people inherit it from their parents through their genes (or DNA). The defective gene that is responsible for causing cystic fibrosis is on chromosome 7. To have cystic fibrosis, a person must inherit two copies of the defective CF gene – one copy from each parent. If both parents are carriers of the CF gene (i.e., they each have one copy of the defective gene), their child will have a 25 percent chance of inheriting both defective copies and having cystic fibrosis, a 50 percent chance of inheriting one defective copy and being a carrier, and a 25 percent chance of not having CF or carrying the gene.
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease. That means people inherit it from their parents through genes (or DNA), which also determine a lot of other characteristics including height, hair color and eye color. Genes, found in the nucleus of all the body’s cells, control cell function by serving as the blueprint for the production of proteins. To have cystic fibrosis, a person must inherit two copies of the defective CF gene—one copy from each parent. If both parents are carriers of the CF gene (i.e., they each have one copy of the defective gene, but do not have the disease themselves), their child will have a 25% chance of inheriting both defective copies and having cystic fibrosis, a 50% chance of inheriting one defective copy and being a carrier, and a 25% chance of not having CF or carrying the gene.
