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Polycystic Kidney Disease What is polycystic kidney disease (PKD)? Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a rare genetic disorder. It causes many cysts filled with fluid to grow in the kidneys. PKD cysts can impair how the kidneys work. It can lead to kidney failure. PKD is the

Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome and Cancer Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) is a rare, inherited condition. It's passed to a child from a parent. PJS is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder. This means you need only one copy of the altered (mutated) gene to have PJS. About 3 out of every 4

The Digestive System: An Overview What is digestion? Food and drink must be changed into smaller molecules of nutrients to be absorbed into the blood and carried to cells throughout the body. Digestion is the process by which food and liquid are broken down into smaller parts

About the Heart and Blood Vessels The heart is the hardest working muscle in the human body. Located almost in the center of the chest, a healthy adult heart is the size of a clenched adult fist. By age 70, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. The heart is

Pollen and Children What is pollen? Each grain of pollen is tiny (microscopic). When there is a lot of pollen together, it becomes a fine yellow powder. It's made of the male reproductive cells of flowering plants, trees, grasses, and weeds. It's the most common cause of hay

Uniparental Disomy: Prader-Willi Syndrome and Angelman Syndrome What is uniparental disomy? Chromosome pairs affect how our body works. Normally, a baby gets one copy of each chromosome pair from each birth parent. In rare cases, two copies come from the same parent. This is

The Thyroid Gland Anatomy of the thyroid gland The thyroid gland is found in the front of the neck. It sits below the voice box (larynx) and on top of the trachea (windpipe). It has a butterfly-like shape. The small, 2-inch gland consists of 2 lobes, 1 on each side of the

Cystic Fibrosis and the Digestive System How does cystic fibrosis affect the digestive system? Children with cystic fibrosis (CF) have a protein in their cells that doesn't work right. The protein is called CFTR (the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator). CFTR controls the