This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Select single-nucleotide variants not associated with risk of ACL injury in female athletes
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Results published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine showed no association between certain single-nucleotide variants localized in genes and the risk of ACL injury in female elite athletes.
Researchers followed 851 female Norwegian and Finnish elite athletes from team sports, recording ACL injuries acquired before inclusion in the cohort and any new complete ACL injuries through 2015. Researchers genotyped six selected single-nucleotide variants.
When comparing the genotype and minor allele frequencies of all the single-nucleotide variants in athletes with no ACL injuries (n=732) to athletes with ACL injury before or after inclusion in the study (n=119), results showed no significant associations in either the unadjusted analyses or when adjusting for cohort and sport. Researchers also found no associations in unadjusted analyses when athletes with no history of ACL injury (n=790) were compared with athletes with ACL injury after inclusion in the study (n=58). A significant association was found between the genotype frequencies of rs13946 in the COL5A1 gene when adjusting for country and sport, according to results. In a separate analysis of the single-nucleotide variants rs1800012 and rs970547 between the national cohorts, results showed no association with ACL injury risk. Researchers noted a risk ratio for suffering a new ACL injury during follow-up of 2.5 when comparing athletes with an ACL injury before inclusion (n=61) and athletes with no history of ACL injury (n=790).
“Although a genetic predisposition may exist, the importance of this—and thus the clinical significance—is unclear,” the authors wrote. “Theoretically, measures to prevent ACL injuries could be targeted to individuals with a specific genetic makeup, but currently there is no evidence supporting such an approach.” – by Casey Tingle
Disclosure: This study was financially supported by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, the Competitive State Research Financing of the Expert Responsibility Area of Tampere University Hospital, the Finnish Olympic Committee, the Competitive Research Funding of the Tampere University Hospital, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research, the Emil Aaltonen Foundation of Finland, the Tampere Tuberculosis Foundation and EU Horizon 2020.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts