Influence of ACE and ACTN3 genes polymorphisms on cardiovascular adaptation in female football players

The aim of study was to investigate distribution of ACE and ACTN3 gene polymorphisms in young female footballers and to test association of common gene polymorphisms with body composition, arterial blood pressure and ECG screening variables. A group of 45 white, healthy, adolescent female elite footballers (FG) and 60 sedentary female controls (CG) enrolled in this study. HRM method has been developed to differentiate between variant alleles of ACE and ACTN3 genes. No significant difference was found in the ACE and ACTN3 genotypes or allele frequencies distribution between FG and CG (p>0.05). Also, neither insertion in the ACE gene, nor nonsense mutation in the ACTN3 gene had a significant effect on resting BP and ECG parameters. Cardiovascular adaptation to intensive physical activity in FG is manifested as lowered resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure (lower 18 and 11 percentiles, respectively). Footballers with ACE DD and ACTN3 XX polymorphisms had higher values of Sokolow-Lyon voltage for LV hypertrophy, but without statistically significance (p=0.61 and 0.2, respectively). Interpretation of the effect of specific genes with presumed large effect on sport performance, should be cautious, especially in team sports with a mixed type of physical activity, such as football.