TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2022//
TI  - The impact of concussion, sport, and time in season on saliva telomere length in healthy athletes
JO  - Frontiers in sports and active living
A1  - Machan, Matthew
A1  - Tabor, Jason B.
A1  - Wang, Meng
A1  - Sutter, Bonnie
A1  - Wiley, J. Preston
A1  - Mychasiuk, Richelle
A1  - Debert, Chantel T.
SP  - e816607
EP  - e816607
VL  - 4
IS  - 
N2  - To date, sport-related concussion diagnosis and management is primarily based on subjective clinical tests in the absence of validated biomarkers. A major obstacle to clinical validation and application is a lack of studies exploring potential biomarkers in non-injured populations. This cross-sectional study examined the associations between saliva telomere length (TL) and multiple confounding variables in a healthy university athlete population. One hundred eighty-three (108 male and 75 female) uninjured varsity athletes were recruited to the study and provided saliva samples at either pre- or mid-season, for TL analysis. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the associations between saliva TL and history of concussion, sport contact type, time in season (pre vs. mid-season collection), age, and sex. <br><br>RESULTS showed no significant associations between TL and history of concussion, age, or sport contact type. However, TL from samples collected mid-season were longer than those collected pre-season [β = 231.4, 95% CI (61.9, 401.0), p = 0.008], and males had longer TL than females [β = 284.8, 95% CI (111.5, 458.2), p = 0.001] when adjusting for all other variables in the model. These findings population suggest that multiple variables may influence TL. Future studies should consider these confounders when evaluating saliva TL as a plausible fluid biomarker for SRC.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 2624-9367
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2022.816607
ID  - ref1
ER  -