Infantile Hypophosphatasia

About Infantile Hypophosphatasia:

• It is a rare genetic disease in which the patient’s bones and teeth demineralise, making her fragile and prone to fractures. 
• Symptom
  • It may have no noticeable abnormalities at birth, but complications become apparent within the first six months of life.
  • The initial problem may be the baby’s failure to gain weight and grow as expected, referred to as “failure to thrive.”
  • Sometimes the skull bones fuse, called craniosynostosis, which can lead to a deformed head (brachycephaly).
  • Affected infants have softened, weakened, and deformed bones consistent with rickets.
  • Rickets is a general term for complications due to defective skeletal mineralization during growth with softening of bone and characteristic bowing deformities.
• Cause
  • It is caused by mutations in the ALPL gene.
  • This is the only gene that causes HPP. Genes provide instructions for making proteins that have an important function in the body.
  • When a mutation occurs, the protein may be faulty, inefficient, or absent, as in HPP.
• There is no known cure for this disease.