Author(s): GINSZT, A., STYK, W., GINSZT, M., JARZYNSKI, A., ZIELINSKI, G., ZMORZYNSKI, S., Institution: MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF LUBLIN, Country: POLAND, Abstract-ID: 1809

INTRODUCTION:
The associations between the AGTR2 genotypes and athletic performance have been proven in various sports disciplines. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the AGTR2 rs11091046 polymorphism in sport climbers. This study aimed to examine whether the rs11091046 polymorphism in the AGTR2 gene is associated with athletic climbing status in sport climbers from Poland.
METHODS:
AGTR2 genotypes of 142 sport climbers (55 female, 87 male athletes) were compared with 89 sedentary controls. Genotyping was performed using TaqMan SNP genotyping assays on Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA, USA). Deviation of genotype frequencies in sport climbers and controls from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) was assessed using a Chi-squared test with Yates’s correction. For a 95% confidence interval (CI), we assumed p=0.05 and χ2=3.84; therefore, if the χ2≤3.84 and the corresponding p≥0.05, the population is in HWE. Both male and female athletes were classified into four groups: “Higher elite”, “Elite”, “Advanced”, and “Intermediate” based on the self-reported most difficult route ever climbed converted to the International Rock Climbing Research Association (IRCRA) Reporting Scale (IRS) based on IRCRA standards for the International Rock Climbing Association.
RESULTS:
Mean IRCRA scores were 19.48 (SD = 3.92) for individuals with the AA genotype, 19.66 (SD = 3.58) for AC, and 17.07 (SD = 3.41) for CC. The chi-square test showed a significant relationship between the AGTR2 genotype and the IRCRA level in the group of male sport climbers (Χ² = 14.85, df = 6, p = 0.02) in comparison to female climbers (p=0.96). Most male climbers with AA and AC genotypes were in the "Advanced" category, while in the CC group, most athletes were in the "Intermediate" category. Notably, no results were recorded among athletes with the CC genotype in the "Elite" and "Higher Elite" categories.
CONCLUSION:
The results suggest that the impact of the AGTR2 (rs11091046) polymorphism on IRCRA results may be gender dependent. The male sport climbers with the CC genotype obtain lower IRCRA scores than athletes with the AC genotype, which may indicate the potential impact of this polymorphism on the climbing status. The AGTR2 gene is located on the X chromosome, which may explain the difference in results - in men, the effect of a single allele may be more pronounced than in women, in whom a second copy of the gene may compensate for the possible negative impact of the risk allele. Future studies should include a larger sample size of women to determine further whether the effect of this polymorphism on the IRCRA score is indeed specific to men.