Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Abuse of recombinant erythropoietins by athletes
Don H. Catlin
1
, Caroline K. Hatton
1
, and Françoise Lasne
2
1
UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory; Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology,
University of California, 2122 Granville Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA
2
Laboratoire National de Dépistage du Dopage, 143, Avenue Roger Salengro, 92290 Châtenay-
Malabry, France
History
History of doping
Athletes have always sought ways to enhance their performance. In ancient
times, medicinal plants were used for doping, i.e., the artificial enhancement
of athletic performance. According to Philostratus, a Greek physiologist in the
third century AD, “[athletes should be]…freed from the use of clay and mud
and irksome medicine” [1]. He described Olympians who enhanced their ath-
letic abilities by eating bread soaked in opium.
Some of the earliest pharmaceuticals, amphetamine, strychnine, and
ephedrine, rapidly became interesting to athletes in search of increased speed
in athletic events. Canal swimmers in Amsterdam were reported to have used
strychnine to win races. The first documented doping fatality at the Olympics
shocked the 1960 Games [2] and it involved amphetamine abuse.
“There can be no doubt that stimulants are today widely used by athletes
participating in competitions; the record-breaking craze and the desire to sat-
isfy an exacting public play a more and more prominent role, and take higher
rank than the health of the competitors itself.”[3] Written in 1939 by a physi-
ologist, this quote is still apropos today and it shows the length of time athletes
have had the “win-at-all-cost” mentality.
Currently, sport is coping with both drugs developed with recombinant-
DNA technology and genetic manipulation. In the 1970s, when the United
States Congressional hearings documented significant abuse of stimulants
and anabolic steroids [4], medical organizations took anti-doping stands and
widespread amphetamine abuse was described in American professional
football.
