DNA VARIANTS IN THE TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR ALPHA (TNF??) AND HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN 70 (HSPA1) GENES IN ENDURANCE ATHLETES 335

In a case-control study, we examined the contribution of two genes that may play a role in discriminating highly trained endurance athletes (EA) from sedentary controls (SC). The EA group included 117 males recruited about equally in Canada and Germany on the basis that they had a ˙VO2max > 73ml/kg·min-1. The SC group comprised 114 unrelated sedentary males from the Québec Family Study who had estimated ˙VO2max values below 48 ml/kg·min-1. PCR and Southern-blotting techniques were used to detect mutations in TNFα and HSPA1 genes, both located on 6p21.3. The genotype distributions are presented in thetable. All distributions were in a Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. No difference was found between EA and SC for the distribution of genotypes or allelic frequencies. Similarly, no difference was seen between the EA with ˙VO2max> 80 ml/kg·min-1 and the other EA or SC. In summary, we found no evidence that the specific mutations tested in these two candidate genes account for the difference in EA and SC status.