Health benefits of Down syndrome include greatly reduced incidence of many common malignancies except leukemia and testicular cancer - although it is, as yet, unclear whether the reduced incidence of various fatal cancers among people with Down syndrome is as a direct result of tumor-suppressor genes on chromosome 21, because of reduced exposure to environmental factors that contribute to cancer risk, or some other as-yet unspecified factor.
In addition to a reduced risk of most kinds of cancer, people with Down syndrome also have a much lower risk of hardening of the arteries and diabetic retinopathy.
The extra chromosomal material can come about in several distinct ways. A typical human karyotype is designated as 46,XX or 46,XY, indicating 46 chromosomes with an XX arrangement typical of females and 46 chromosomes with an XY arrangement typical of males.
Trisomy 21
Trisomy 21 (47,XX,+21) is caused by a meiotic nondisjunction event. With nondisjunction, a gamete (''i.e.'', a sperm or egg cell) is produced with an extra copy of chromosome 21; the gamete thus has 24 chromosomes.
When combined with a normal gamete from the other parent, the embryo now has 47 chromosomes, with three copies of chromosome 21. Trisomy 21 is the cause of approximately 95% of observed Down syndromes, with 88% coming from nondisjunction in the maternal gamete and 8% coming from nondisjunction in the paternal gamete.
Mosaicism
Trisomy 21 is usually caused by nondisjunction in the gametes prior to conception, and all cells in the body are affected. However, when some of the cells in the body are normal and other cells have trisomy 21, it is called mosaic Down syndrome (46,XX/47,XX,+21). This can occur in one of two ways: a nondisjunction event during an early cell division in a normal embryo leads to a fraction of the cells with trisomy 21; or a Down syndrome embryo undergoes nondisjunction and some of the cells in the embryo revert to the normal chromosomal arrangement.
There is considerable variability in the fraction of trisomy 21, both as a whole and among tissues. This is the cause of 1–2% of the observed Down syndromes. If the duplicated region has genes that are responsible for Down syndrome physical and mental characteristics, such individuals will show those characteristics.
This cause is rare and no rate estimates are available.
Further Reading
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