Detection of prohibited growth factors in doping control: serum concentration ranges in a reference population of athletes

Growth factors (GFs) are a wide class of polypeptides that can regulate cellular proliferation, migration and differentiation. Due to their ability to extensively impact on tissue regeneration GFs are banned in and out of competition and included in section S2 of the 2018 Prohibited List of banned substances released by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In doping control, methods of detection of prohibited GFs have been developed only for Growth Hormone (GH) and Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Since GFs are endogenously produced substances, the need to determine analytical thresholds is mandatory in order to develop a method that aims to ascertain their abuse in sports. In this study we have proposed to extend knowledge about GFs by analyzing the serum content of the principal banned GFs in a population of athletes with the final aim to identify possible differences in concentration levels possibly related to gender and age and to establish normal serum concentration ranges that can be used as reference in the case that GFs could be abused for doping purposes