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Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffIn cystic fibrosis, a defective gene alters a protein that regulates the normal movement of salt (sodium chloride) in and out of cells. This results in thick, sticky secretions in the respiratory and digestive tracts, as well as in the reproductive system. It also causes increased salt in sweat.
The affected gene, which is inherited from a child's parents, is a recessive gene. With recessive genes, children need to inherit two copies of the gene, one from each parent, in order to have the disease. If children inherit only one copy, they won't develop cystic fibrosis, but will be carriers and possibly pass the gene to their own children.
If two people who carry the defective gene conceive a child, there's a 25 percent chance the child will have cystic fibrosis, a 50 percent chance the child will be a carrier of the cystic fibrosis gene, and a 25 percent chance the child will neither have the disease nor be a carrier.
People who carry the cystic fibrosis gene are healthy and have no symptoms — they may be carriers and not know it. Although parents often blame themselves when a child is born with cystic fibrosis, it's important to remember that the causes of cystic fibrosis are not the result of anything a parent consciously does.
The role of fatty acids
Some experts believe that an imbalance of essential fatty acids may play a role in cystic fibrosis. People with cystic fibrosis appear to have excessively high levels of arachidonic acid and a deficiency of another fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid.
Healthy people who carry one cystic fibrosis gene have fatty acid levels midway between those of people with cystic fibrosis and people with no genetic mutations for the disease. But the exact nature of the relationship between fatty acid levels and the gene defect that causes cystic fibrosis isn't clear.
