Among a sample of female basketball players, fluctuations in levels of biomarkers associated with cartilage production or degradation early in the season were associated with injuries later
(Austin Bigoney / UConn Athletics Photo)
One of the most catastrophic events for an athlete is a joint injury like an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear.
New research led by Julie Burland found that among a sample of female basketball players, fluctuations in levels of biomarkers associated with cartilage production or degradation early in the season were associated with injuries later.
Burland is director of research for the UConn Institute of Sports Medicine and assistant research professor of kinesiology in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources,
She published this research in Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation.
Burland first learned about research linking cartilage biomarkers with joint health during her postdoctoral work at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Spaulding National Running Center.
These biomarkers communicate if cartilage - the protective padding around joints - is being made or broken down in the body.
"One of our main projects was to look at whether there was a relationship between cartilage metabolism, essentially the health of the joint, relative to injuries," Burland says.
Previous research with military members found that fluctuations in cartilage biomarkers were able to predict if those people went on to injure their ACL at a later time.
"There has been minimal research looking at this in a healthy, active sport population," Burland says. "So, we thought this would be an impactful way to see and get some preliminary data on if this relationship exists over the course of a season in active females."
Female athletes in high-impact sports like basketball or soccer have a higher rate of ACL injuries than their male counterparts.
The researchers recruited 11 female basketball players from UConn and other Connecticut colleges for this study.
Over the course of the season, the researchers took blood samples from the players to study changes in their cartilage biomarkers, and measures of their lower leg impact load during practice.
They took a baseline blood sample before the season started. They also looked to see if any of the athletes' movement patterns could be putting them at risk of injury during the season.
During practices, the players wore monitors on their lower legs to measure how hard they hit the ground when running or jumping - their "impact load."
"We could see how many steps they took and how hard each of those steps were," Burland says.
Hitting the ground with a greater intensity more frequently was associated with a greater risk of injury.
"It's unsurprising in the sense that if athletes are taking higher numbers of higher intensity steps in a given week, there's a higher risk that they're going to sustain a lower extremity injury," Burland.
The researchers took blood samples four times during the season, and a final sample after the season ended to look at changes to cartilage biomarkers.
The researchers found that fluctuations of biomarkers linked to cartilage synthesis were correlated with injury.
"One hypothesis is that whether it's cartilage synthesis or degradation, the fact that there are fluctuations of cartilage metabolism in general could be indicative of something underlying that is ongoing with these individuals," Burland says.
These fluctuations were most common earlier in the season.
"The take home from this is that we need to be aware of potential earlier season fluctuations in these markers, and earlier season impact loads that could potentially lead to injury later in the season," Burland says.
One practice that could reduce this risk is having a transition period from resting out of season to intense physical activity in-season to help athletes' bodies adjust to the change.
Given that this study used a small, specific sample population, Burland hopes to expand the work using larger samples and other athlete populations.
"It was a good starting point and hopefully it will give us a foundation to build larger, more in-depth longitudinal studies looking at various populations," Burland. "Our hope is to extend this into more female basketball teams as well as male sports and other related sports that have similar impact load patterns."
This work relates to CAHNR's Strategic Vision area focused on Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally.
