Origin identification of naturally occurring hormones in dope analysis

Abstract

Abuses of performance-enhancing agents and the manipulation or cheating of test systems are prohibited in order to protect fairness in sports and athletes' health according to ethical considerations. Doping control is applied worldwide at all levels of sports. Recent trends of test results show that doping with naturally occurring substances, such as androgenic steroids, the pro-hormones and the metabolites, peptide hormones, blood and blood components etc. are increasing, so that the testing methods for origin identification must fit for the purpose depending on the property of the target compounds. This review refers to up-dated information concerning the procedures for origin identification of doping agents with special focus on GC-online isotope ratio mass spectrometry. © 2014 The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry.