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Association between ACE D allele and elite short distance swimming

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Abstract

The influence of ACE gene on athletic performance has been widely explored, and most of the published data refers to an I/D polymorphism leading to the presence (I allele) or absence (D allele) of a 287-bp sequence in intron 16, determining ACE activity in serum and tissues. A higher I allele frequency has been reported among elite endurance athletes, while the D allele was more frequent among those engaged in more power-orientated sports. However, on competitive swimming, the reproducibility of such associations is controversial. We thus compared the ACE genotype of elite swimmers with that of non-elite swimming cohort and of healthy control subjects. We thus sought an association of the ACE genotype of elite swimmers with their competitive distance. 39 Portuguese Olympic swimming candidates were classified as: short (<200 m) and middle (400–1,500 m) distance swimmers, respectively. A group of 32 non-elite swimmers were studied and classified as well, and a control group (n = 100) was selected from the Portuguese population. Chelex 100 was used for DNA extraction and genotype was determined by PCR-RFLP methods. We found that ACE genotype distribution and allelic frequency differs significantly by event distance only among elite swimmers (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, the allelic frequency of the elite short distance swimmers differed significantly from that of the controls (P = 0.021). No associations were found between middle distance swimmers and controls. Our results seem to support an association between the D allele and elite short distance swimming.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Portuguese Swimming Federation for authorization and technical support. We are also grateful to the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (SFRH/BD/40243/2007) for financial support. All subjects sign an informed consent approved by local health sciences research ethics committee. The experiments comply with the current Portuguese laws and carried out according to the Helsinki Declaration.

Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sports Science, University of Beira Interior, Rua Marquês d’Ávila e Bolama, 6201-001, Covilhã, Portugal

    Aldo Matos Costa

  2. Research Centre in Sports, Health and Human Development, Vila Real, Portugal

    Aldo Matos Costa, António José Silva, Nuno Domingos Garrido & Hugo Louro

  3. Department of Sports, Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

    António José Silva & Nuno Domingos Garrido

  4. Sports Science Institute of Rio Maior, Rio Maior, Portugal

    Hugo Louro

  5. Catholic University of Brasilia, Brasilia, Brazil

    Ricardo Jacó de Oliveira

  6. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

    Luiza Breitenfeld

  7. CICS, Health Sciences Research Centre, Covilhã, Portugal

    Aldo Matos Costa & Luiza Breitenfeld

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  1. Aldo Matos Costa
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Correspondence to Aldo Matos Costa.

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Costa, A.M., Silva, A.J., Garrido, N.D. et al. Association between ACE D allele and elite short distance swimming. Eur J Appl Physiol 106, 785–790 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-009-1080-z

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