How is "Hamstring Injury" encoded by the genome?
The hamstring muscle refers to the group of three muscles that run along the back of your thigh to your knee. Hamstring muscle injury is the most frequent injury in elite male soccer players; it affects team performance negatively, has high economic costs, and might induce long-term health consequences. Therefore, scientists can better understand the risk of injuries by investigating the association of candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) with noncontact hamstring muscle injuries in elite soccer players.
Researchers investigated the association of candidate SNP with noncontact hamstring muscle injuries in elite soccer players. A total of 107 elite male outfield players were prospectively followed for six seasons. The discovery phase consisted of 413 observations and 129 hamstring injuries (107 players), whereas 98 observations and 31 hamstring injuries (67 players) were included in the validation phase. Players were genotyped for 37 SNP previously investigated in relation to musculoskeletal injuries. Analysis of individual SNP revealed seven polymorphisms significantly associated with the risk of a hamstring injury, which includes rs679620 in matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3) gene. This SNP was the most significant of the seven polymorphisms associated with a hamstring injury. It was also the only SNP significantly associated with acute, overuse, severe, and re-current hamstring injuries. Each copy of the A allele increases the risk of hamstring injury twice compared with the GG genotype. MMP3 plays an important role in the maintenance of myofiber functional integrity by breaking down components of the extracellular matrix and in the regulation of skeletal muscle cell migration, differentiation, and regeneration. A allele of rs679620, has been shown to result in a higher MMP3 expression compared with the G allele.
MMP3 rs679620 was the only variable associated with acute, overuse, severe, and recurrent hamstring injuries. The model could not identify players at higher risk of injury in a subsequent independent season, and genetic testing for hamstring injury risk seems premature. Further, increasing the number of genetic variants and environmental risk factors would need to understand genetics' influence on musculoskeletal injuries. Read more here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28976491/
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