"Genetic Doping" with erythropoietin cDNA in primate muscle is detectable.

Forthcoming "genetic doping" is predicted to be undetectable. In the case of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO), a hormone used in endurance sports, it is being predicted that exogenous drug injections will be replaced by the transfer of the corresponding gene into some of the athlete's own cells. The hormone thus produced inside the organism is assumed to be completely identical to the physiological one. Our results show that this is not the case and open up optimistic prospects for antidoping control involving gene transfer.

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