Almost
everyone knows of someone who has injured their anterior cruciate ligament
(ACL), as it is a very common injury in sports. However, people may not know
that females are two to eight times more likely to injure their ACL than males.
But, why is this true? Is it because of an anatomical or hormonal factor, or is
it based on genetics?
In a study recently
performed at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, a biopsy of ruptured
ACL tissue was obtained from seven male and seven female athletes. There were
thirty-two differentially expressed genes isolated from the tissue, fourteen of
which were not linked to the X or Y chromosome. These fourteen genes were
grouped according to skeletal muscular development, function and growth. In
females, altered responses in signaling pathways that regulate cartilage and
tissue growth were found. Researchers believe that these findings will help
determine the role of genetics in ACL structure, and the tendency toward increased
injury in female compared to male athletes.
I found this article to be interesting, especially
because I work with injured athletes on a daily basis, working at an athletic
training room. However, I think more research needs to be done on this topic
involving athletes of various ages and cultural backgrounds for the research to
be considered substantial. Studies should be performed on much larger
quantities of athletes, as well, as opposed to only fourteen being used in this
study.
Related
Article: http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/nov10/research3.asp
I know a lot of people who tore their ACL's and I actually never realized how many of them were females compared to males. I work in a PT office as an aide and they were educating me more on how women tear their ACL easier. Their wider hips is the main reason dealing with that. This article explains the female structure in more depth --> http://www.hughston.com/hha/a_11_3_2.htm
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about the genetics in the future on this topic though. With evolution, humans have been change over time. More research and years are a head of us, this gene may adapt and start to take over the male population too. ACL injuries may be just as common in males as it is females.
I enjoyed this article because I have played sports my entire life and have known a lot of friends who have torn their ACL's. My sister had torn her ACL playing soccer, and at the time the surgeon told her that girls are more prone to tearing ACL's, because female have a different body structure than males, but he also said she was more susceptible to tearing it because of the fact that she was still growing. This sparked interest in me so I did some further research and found that teenage girls are 8 to 10 times more likely to tear their ACL than guys. During the teenage years of a girl, the hormone levels are high, and that actually loosens up ligaments.
ReplyDelete