Albers-schonberg disease is one form of osteopetrosis, which is a hereditary disorder affecting bone density and formation. In persons with osteopetrosis, decreased skeletal resorption leads to improper bone formation inside the bone marrow space, which leads to increased bone density. Osteopetrosis can have onset in infancy, childhood, or adulthood, with childhood and infant onset leading to the most serous forms of disease. Which form of osteopetrosis is technically called Albers-Schonberg disease is not always consistent in the literature. For this reason, the childhood and infant forms of the disease will be referred to as simply osteopetrosis for this article. The forms affecting children are autosomal recessive, meaning that both parents must carry the gene for osteopetrosis in order for the disease to manifest in the child. In the less serious adult form, the disease is autosomal dominant. The location of the gene that caused Albers-Schonberg disease has been mapped to Chromosome 16p.13.3.