Why the study?
Muscle injuries are a major concern in professional soccer, and the role of genetic factors like ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D polymorphisms in predicting injury incidence and severity required investigation.
Do ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D polymorphisms predict the incidence and severity of non-contact muscle injury in professional soccer athletes?
Do ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D polymorphisms predict the incidence and severity of non-contact muscle injury in professional soccer athletes?
ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D polymorphisms are associated with increased susceptibility and severity of non-contact muscle injuries in professional soccer players.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
May not yet guide injury prevention via ACTN3/ACE genotyping in athletes; leaves open validation in larger cohorts.
Muscle injuries are among the main reasons for medical leavings of soccer athletes, being a major concern within professional teams and their prevention associated with sport success. Several factors are associated with a greater predisposition to injury, and genetic background is increasingly being investigated. The aim of this study was to analyze whether ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D polymorphisms are predictors of the incidence and severity of muscle injury in professional soccer athletes from Brazil, individually and in association. Eighty-three professional athletes from the first and second divisions of the Brazilian Championship were evaluated regarding the polymorphisms through blood samples. Nighty-nine muscle injuries were identified during the seasons of 2018, 2019 and 2020 and categorized according to severity. ACTN3 XX individuals had a higher frequency of severe injuries compared to the RX and RR genotypes (p = 0.001), and in the dominant model (compared to RX+RR), with p < 0.001. The trend p-value test showed an increased number of injuries/season following the order XX > RX > RR (p = 0.045). Those with the ACE II genotype had almost 2 fold the number of injuries per season compared to those with the ID+DD genotypes (p = 0.03). Logistic regression showed that the polymorphisms are predictors of the development of severe injury (ACTN3 R577X model with p = 0.004, R2: 0.259; ACE I/D model with p = 0.045, R2: 0.163), where ACTN3 XX individuals were more likely to suffer from severe injury (OR: 5.141, 95% CI: 1.472–17.961, p = 0.010). The combination of the ACTN3 577X allele and the ACE II genotype showed an increased number of injuries per season, enhanced by 100% (1.682 injuries/season versus 0.868 injuries/season, p = 0.016). Our findings suggest that both polymorphisms ACTN3 R577X and ACE I/D (and their interaction) are associated with the susceptibility and severity of non-contact muscle injury in soccer players.
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Almeida et al. (2022) studied this question.
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