Reduced levels of genomic damage in young martial artists

Abstract

The impact of physical activity on the levels of genomic damage is still poorly understood. In this work, we aimed to investigate the influence of a constant martial arts training on the levels of DNA damage. Moreover, we explored the possible association between genomic damage and single-gene polymorphisms on metabolic and DNA repair genes. To do this, we compared the frequency of micronuclei and other nuclear aberrations in the buccal mucosa cells of 35 healthy, young martial artists with 35 healthy, young sedentary controls. Additionally, we genotyped all participants for three metabolic and two DNA repair genes to evaluate the impact of the relative single-gene polymorphisms on DNA damage. Genomic damage was significantly lower in athletes than in sedentary controls, as evidenced by a decrease in both micronuclei and total aberrations. Instead, single-gene polymorphisms did not significantly alter the frequencies of aberrations. These findings suggest that training may have a protective effect against genomic damage, supporting the health benefits provided by physical activity. The influence of other factors should be considered, and further studies focusing on disciplines with different training regimes are necessary to evaluate thoroughly their influence on genomic damage.