Are elite endurance athletes genetically predisposed to lower disease risk?

Abstract

We compared a polygenic profile that combined 33 disease risk-related mutations and polymorphisms among nonathletic healthy control subjects and elite endurance athletes. The study sample comprised 100 healthy Spanish male nonathletic (sedentary) control subjects and 100 male elite endurance athletes. We analyzed 33 disease risk-related mutations and polymorphisms. We computed a health-related total genotype score (TGS, 0-100) from the accumulated combination of the 33 variants. We did not observe significant differences in genotype or allele distributions among groups, except for the rs4994 polymorphism (P < 0.001). The computed health-related TGS was similar among groups (23.8 +/- 1.0 vs. 24.2 +/- 0.8 in control subjects and athletes, respectively; P = 0.553). Similar results were obtained when computing specific TGSs for each main disease category (cardiovascular disease and cancer). We observed no evidence that male elite endurance athletes are genetically predisposed to have lower disease risk than matched nonathletic control subjects.

GNB3C825T Polymorphism and Elite Athletic Status: A Replication Study with Two Ethnic Groups

“…In the samples from Israeli subjects, genotyping of the GNB3 C825T polymorphism was performed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism [13] . In the samples from Spanish subjects, genotyping was performed using a newly-developed low-density DNA microarray based on allele-specifi c probes [6] .…”

The Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene Variant rs2070744 in Turkish Elite Athletes

“…eNOS gene has several polymorphic sites. In various studies, it was reported that eNOS T-786C variant to be associated with resting forearm blood flow [20] and the parasympathetic modulation response to aerobic exercise training [21] besides the differentiation of elite power from endurance athletes [22]. In in-vitro luciferasebased transcription analysis, it was shown that C allele of eNOS has a lower promoter activity than T allele [6].…”

Sports genetics moving forward: lessons learned from medical research

“…The most probable relevance will be by rare variants with large effects (e.g., 20), since the effect of common variants with small effects might be overridden by environmental effect. In a study comparing common diseasecausing variants elite athletes did not differ from controls (31). There are a few examples where genetic variation in the (super)healthy has been utilized in the prevention of disease.…”