Genetic disorder

A genetic disorder, or genetic disease is a disease caused by abnormal expression of one or more genes in a person causing a clinical phenotype. There are a number of possible causes for genetic defects:

Multifactoral and polygenic disorders

Genetic disorders may also be complex, multifactorial or polygenic, this means that they are likely associated with the effects of multiple genes in combination with lifestyle and environmental factors. Multifactoral disorders include heart disease and diabetes. Although complex disorders often cluster in families, they do not have a clear-cut pattern of inheritance. This makes it difficult to determine a person?s risk of inheriting or passing on these disorders. Complex disorders are also difficult to study and treat because the specific factors that cause most of these disorders have not yet been identified.

Related Topics:
Heart disease - Diabetes

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Examples of polygenic disorders in humans include:

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• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Epilepsy
• Hypertension
• Manic depression
• Schizophrenia
• Cleft palate
• congenital heart defects
• neural tube defects