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Brief Communications

Nature 405, 635 (8 June 2000) | doi:10.1038/35015164

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Recombinant erythropoietin in urine

Françoise Lasne1 & Jacques de Ceaurriz1

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An artificial hormone taken to boost athletic performance can now be detected.

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Erythropoietin is a hormone that stimulates the production of new red blood cells (erythropoiesis). Although athletes use recombinant human erythropoietin illicitly to boost the delivery of oxygen to the tissues and enhance their performance in endurance sports, this widespread doping practice cannot be controlled in the absence of a reliable analytical procedure to monitor it. Here we describe a new technique for detecting this drug in urine following its recent administration.