Real World Implications

A person with albinism will need to be careful when out in the sun for long periods of time. The lack of pigment in the skin and eyes causes problems for a person with albinism when their in the sun. If a person with albinism is in the sun they must use a sun block with an UVA-UVB of at least 20 to prevent skin cancer. Also they have a much greater need for sunglasses to ease the pain in the eyes from too much sunlight.

A person with albinism will also need some type of reading aid (example glasses or magnifying glass) due to the problems caused by albinism in the eyes.

This is a website that gives information on Living with Albinism:
http://www.womenfitness.net/beauty/skin/albinism.htm

This is another website that gives information about Albinism:
http://www.albinism.org/index.html

Ocular Albinism

Ocular Albinism is the second most common form of albinism. Ocular albinism affects the amount of pigment in the eyes but does not significantly affect the skin or hair. Ocular albinism reduces the pigment of the iris (the colored part of the eye) and the retina (the light sensitive tissues) at the back of the eye. Ocular albinism causes severely impaired sharpness of vision and problems with combining vision from both eyes to perceive depth. Other eye problems associated with ocular albinism are rapid, involuntary eye movements; eyes that do not look in the same direction; and increase sensitivity to light.

This is a link to a picture showing the eye of a person with albinism:
http://albinism.med.umn.edu/factfig1.gif

This is a link to a picture showing the routing of nerves from the eye to the brain for a normal pigmented person and a person with albinism:
http://albinism.med.umn.edu/factfig3.gif

Oculocutaneous Albinism

Oculocutaneous albinism is the most common form of albinism. Oculocutaneous albinism affects the eyes, hair and skin. The most severe form of oculocutaneous albinism causes the hair and skin of a person to remain pure white throughout life. The less severe form of oculocutaneous albinism causes a person to be born with white hair and skin which turns slightly darker as they age. Everyone with oculocutaneous albinism experiences abnormal flickering eye movements called nystagmus and experience sensitivity to bright light. Other problems caused by oculocutaneous are poor vision and crossed or “lazy” eyes which is called strabismus.


This is a link giving a comparison of vision between a person with albinism and a person without albinism:
http://www.womenfitness.net/r_img2/albinism.jpg.


This is a link to a picture of a person with oculocutaneous albinism:
http://health.moonlightchest.com/images/albinism.jpg.

Hereditary Information

Albinism is hereditary which means it is not an infectious disease and cannot be transmitted through blood or contact. Albinism is caused by a flaw or defect in one or more of the genes that are responsible for producing melanin. Melanin is basically the pigment that gives color to skin, hair and eyes.

If both parents each carry the defected or flawed gene, they have a 1 in 4 chance of passing both copies of the defected or flawed gene to the child which means the child would have albinism.

There are 10 different types of albinism, each affecting different genes.

This is a link of a picture showing the chances of parents who carry the defected genes passing the defected genes on to their children: http://www.womenfitness.net/r_img2/albinism3.jpg.

This is a link that gives information about the type of albinism and the gene each affect:
http://albinismdb.med.umn.edu/.

Introduction:
Albinism is a condition that causes lack of pigment that gives color to the skin, hair and eyes. Albinism is caused by an inherited gene from either both parents or in some rare cases from only one parent. Albinism is rare in the United States and Europe affecting only 5 people per 100,000 people, where as in Southern Nigeria it affects 20 people per 100,000 people. There are 2 common types of Albinism called “oculocutaneous” albinism and “ocular” albinism.

Welcome to my BIOL 1010 blog. My name is Kristie, and I am in Ms. Graugnard's BIOL 1010 N01 class. My topic for this project is albinism. I hope you find this blog to be interesting and informative. Thanks for visiting.