Endocrine Abstracts

Anecdotal evidence suggests that athletes have been misusing growth hormone (GH) for its anabolic, lipolytic, psychological and cardiovascular effects since the early 1980s, at least a decade before endocrinologists began to treat adults with GH deficiency. There have been on-going debates about whether GH is performance-enhancing. Although many of the early studies were negative, randomized controlled studies are not sensitive enough to distinguish the small performance benefits that athletes are seeking. More recent studies suggest that GH improves strength and sprint capacity, particularly when combined with anabolic steroids. Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) has also been used as an alternative performance-enhancing drug to growth hormone (GH) because IGF-I mediates many of the anabolic actions of GH. The IOC recognized the need for an effective test to detect GH misuse as early as 1992 but the challenges involved in the detection of GH meant that the first test was not introduced until the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. WADA has approved two methods to detect GH misuse based on blood samples. The first is based on the measurement of pituitary GH isoforms while the second relies on the measurement of two markers of GH action, insulin like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and the amino-terminal pro-peptide of type III collagen (P-III-NP).

GH-2000 team

Richard Holt, Peter Sonksen, David Cowan, Dankmar Böhning, Nishan Guha, Christiaan Bartlett, Tan Böhning.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the US Anti-Doping Agency, World Anti-Doping Agency and Partnership for Clean Competition for their financial support of the GH-2004 project. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of UK Anti-Doping.