NIH Sickle Cell Cord Blood Research Program

What Causes Sickle Cell Disease?

Sickle cell disease is inherited. This means a person is born with the disease and cannot catch it like a cold or virus. Inherited diseases are passed onto the baby by genes from his/her parents. Genes are material that is found inside every cell and they control all the physical characteristics of a baby; like eye, hair or skin color. To be born with sickle cell disease the baby must inherit two ‘sickle genes’; one ‘sickle gene’ from the mother and one ‘sickle gene’ from the father. When both parents have this ‘sickle gene’ (S) they are said to have the “sickle trait”, and their baby will have a 1 in 4 chance of having the disease.