21-hydroxylase sentence example
- Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is a form of adrenal insufficiency in which 21-hydroxylase, the enzyme that produces two important adrenal steroid hormones, cortisol and aldosterone, is deficient.
- In its most severe form, called salt-wasting (or salt-losing) CAH, where there is a total or near total deficiency of the 21-hydroxylase enzyme, a life-threatening adrenal crisis can occur if the disorder is untreated.
- There is also a milder form of CAH in which children have partial 21-hydroxylase enzyme deficiencies (simple virilizing form).
- Another type of CAH is characterized by only a slight deficiency in production of the 21-hydroxylase enzyme (nonclassic or late-onset form), in which symptoms occurs later in childhood or during young adolescence.
- The 21-hydroxylase gene is made by a gene located on the short arm of chromosome 6.Advertisement
- When 21-hydroxylase is deficient, this leads to a hyperfunction and increased size (hyperplasia) of the adrenals.