Soccer is one of the biggest team sports out there in the world with an estimated figure of about 265 million players in the world. Unfortunately, soccer-related knee injuries are very common and constitute a major problem not only in soccer but many other sports. The Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the most common knee structure that is injured during play and practice. An ACL injury can be characterized as a partial of a full tear of the ligament; surgical repair of the ACL is very common, expensive and it requires extensive long-term rehabilitation at $17000 to $25000 per injury. The ACL injury is multifactorial that has several potential risk factors that contribute to sustaining this injury. Regardless of level of play, age,
…show more content…
The knee where the ACL is located must be able to withstand these forces and have tensile strength. Estrogen and progesterone have been linked to affect the collagen metabolism of female ACL’s (Wild, 2012). In a recent 2015 cross-sectional study, it compared gene expression and structural functions in normal ACL tissues from young male and females who had ruptured ACL’s that had gone through surgery. The study looked at three genes of interest that were put through a by RT-qPCR (reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction) of all the male and female subjects and a statistical method was used to examine sex-related differences (Wild, 2012). The genes that had been classified in this study as differing distinctively according to sex produce molecules in the ACL extra cellular matrix (Wild, 2012). The differences seen in gene regulation of FMOD, WISP2 and ACAN that had been chosen in ruptured ACL tissues in females and males may have a possible impact on the integrity of the ACL structure. This is the first study in literature to show that gene differences can be a contributing factor to the gender differences in ACL injuries and may explain for the increased prevalence of weaker female ACL’s which in turn put females at a greater risk of …show more content…
The objective of this study was to to determine the ACL incidence in male and female elite football players. A total of 28 European professional men’s first league teams and 29 teams in the Swedish men’s (n=16) and women’s (n=13) first leagues (Waldèn, 2011). A total of 2329 players were followed over a number of seasons with 574 knee sprains occurring. A total of 43 (0.7%) ACL injures occurred in the first group (EUR men), 20 (0.8%) in the second group (SWE men) and 15 (2.4%) in the third group (SWE women) (Waldèn, 2011). The greatest gender difference was seen during match play with an overall greater female-to-male hazard ratio comparing all men and women in all aspects of match to training incidence (Waldèn, 2011). The ACL injury incidence rate in female elite football players was more then doubled when compared to males, it was also noted that females were significantly younger at ACL injuries than males (Waldèn, 2011). A possible hormonal difference could be a part of the reason why female are more prone to ACL injuries at a younger age then their male counter
The knee where the ACL is located must be able to withstand these forces and have tensile strength. Estrogen and progesterone have been linked to affect the collagen metabolism of female ACL’s (Wild, 2012). In a recent 2015 cross-sectional study, it compared gene expression and structural functions in normal ACL tissues from young male and females who had ruptured ACL’s that had gone through surgery. The study looked at three genes of interest that were put through a by RT-qPCR (reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction) of all the male and female subjects and a statistical method was used to examine sex-related differences (Wild, 2012). The genes that had been classified in this study as differing distinctively according to sex produce molecules in the ACL extra cellular matrix (Wild, 2012). The differences seen in gene regulation of FMOD, WISP2 and ACAN that had been chosen in ruptured ACL tissues in females and males may have a possible impact on the integrity of the ACL structure. This is the first study in literature to show that gene differences can be a contributing factor to the gender differences in ACL injuries and may explain for the increased prevalence of weaker female ACL’s which in turn put females at a greater risk of …show more content…
The objective of this study was to to determine the ACL incidence in male and female elite football players. A total of 28 European professional men’s first league teams and 29 teams in the Swedish men’s (n=16) and women’s (n=13) first leagues (Waldèn, 2011). A total of 2329 players were followed over a number of seasons with 574 knee sprains occurring. A total of 43 (0.7%) ACL injures occurred in the first group (EUR men), 20 (0.8%) in the second group (SWE men) and 15 (2.4%) in the third group (SWE women) (Waldèn, 2011). The greatest gender difference was seen during match play with an overall greater female-to-male hazard ratio comparing all men and women in all aspects of match to training incidence (Waldèn, 2011). The ACL injury incidence rate in female elite football players was more then doubled when compared to males, it was also noted that females were significantly younger at ACL injuries than males (Waldèn, 2011). A possible hormonal difference could be a part of the reason why female are more prone to ACL injuries at a younger age then their male counter