Pituitary
Testing for Growth Hormone (GH) is difficult because the GH used in
doping is indistinguishable by normal methods, from the GH made by the
body itself. Although the use of GH is banned, there is anecdotal
evidence that GH doping is widespread, so a reliable test is required
to deter its abuse. Our work is focused on identifying factors
regulating the different forms of GH, called isoforms, and on proteins
that respond to the growth hormone signal. We are investigating the
biological interactions between testosterone and GH in recreational
athletes. We are also using microarray gene profiling to identify novel
markers of GH in peripheral blood cells. The aim is to develop a gene
fingerprint test based on gene expression profiling of blood.
Staff
Dr Chris Mitchell |
|
Jennifer Hansen |
Dr Vita Birzniece |
