One of the most catastrophic events for an athlete is a joint injury like an an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) Tear.

New Research LED by Julie Burland Found That Among A Sample of Female Basketball Players, Fluctations in Levels of Biomarkers Associated With Cartilage Production Oor Degradation Early in the SEAN Associated with injuries laater.

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 herthing 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 wheether there was a relationship between cartilage metabolism, essentially the health of the joint, relative to injuries,” Burland calls.

Previous Research with Military Members Found That Fluctations in Cartilage Biomarkers WERE ABELE TO PREDICT IF ThOSE MEPLE WENT ON TO PREDECT IFTER Went on to Injure Thei ACL at a Later Time.

“There has been minimal research looking at this in a healthy, active sport population,” Burland says. “So, we feel 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 results, took blood samples from the players to study changes in his cartilage biomarkers, and measures of their lower Leg IMPACT LOD DURING DURCTICE.

They took a baseline blood sample before the season. They are also looked to see if any of the athletes’ movement patterns could be putting itm 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.”

“Weound see how many steps they took and how hard each of that steps were,” Burland says.

Hitting the ground with a greensity more frequently was associated with a greenr risk of injury.

“It’s unsurprising in the sense that if athletes are taking higher numbers of higher-intense steps in a given week, there’s a higher risk that they’re going

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 Cold be indicative of Somenting Undering that that is ongoing with this 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 Fluctations in these markers, and earlier season impact loads that would potentially lead to Injury Later in the SEASON,”

One practice that would reduce this risk is having a transition peri

Given that this study used a small, specific sample population, burland hopes to expand the work using larger samples and other athlete population.

“It was a good starting point and hopefully its will give us a foundation to build larger, more in-depth longitudinal study looking at various population,” 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.”