Down Syndrome Facts - Down Syndrome Facts

Down Syndrome Facts
What is Down Syndrome
Have you ever seen someone with a flatter face than normal, and eyes that are slanted. In general someone who looks and responds differently as compared to a normal person. Chances are this person is suffering from Down syndrome.

Down syndrome is named after the physician who identified it - John Langdon Down. One must understand how the chromosome structure and how it functions in order to understand what the Down syndrome is all about.

The human body is made up of cells that contain chromosomes which transmit genetic information. All (except the sperm cells in male and ovum in females) cells contain 23 pairs (total 46) of chromosomes, 23 inherited from the mother and 23 inherited from the father. The sperm and ovum don't contain 23 pairs, but 23 individual chromosomes. A person suffers from Down syndrome when chromosome pair number 21 contains 3 chromosomes instead of 2 (a total of 47 instead of 46).

It is not known why, buy has been noticed that the incidence of Down syndrome increases with increasing maternal age.

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