PhD defence: Chronic beta2-adrenoceptor agonist administration and doping
Effects on lean mass, muscle strength, and exercise performance
Søren Kaare Jessen
PhD thesis
The drug class collectively referred to as "beta2-agonists", is essential in the treatment of asthma and exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. Especially athletes, who are very prone to suffer from these conditions, have a high use of beta2-agonists.
Anti-doping regulations formulated by the World Anti-Doping Agency restrict the use of beta2-agonists partly because high-dose inhalation immediately prior to exercise can enhance performance. However, very limited knowledge exists on how chronic treatment with beta2-agonists (i.e. daily for several weeks) affects exercise performance.
In this PhD thesis, it was explored whether dishonest athletes can potentially derive increases in muscle mass and improvements in exercise performance with chronic beta2-agonist administration within the limits of what is permitted by current anti-doping regulations.
The three studies on which this PhD thesis is based show that beta2-agonists can indeed increase muscle mass in humans and that this can be achieved in doses within the current anti-doping regulations. However, despite the increased muscle mass, beta2-agonists do not improve muscle strength or sprint performance.
In contrast, it seems that chronic treatment with beta2-agonists impairs endurance (aerobic) performance. These data indicate that within the current anti-doping regulations, there is very limited potential for exercise performance enhancement with chronic use of beta2-agonists.
2021, 150 pages.
Date
4 November 2021, 14:00
Place
Store Auditorium, Nørre Allé 53, 2200 København N.
Opponents
Associate Professor Anke Ninija Karabanov (chair), Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Chief Officer, PhD Olivier de Hon, Doping Authority Netherlands.
Professor Caroline Michaela Kistorp, Rigshospitalet, Denmark.
Supervisors
Associate professor Morten Hostrup, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Professor Jens Bangsbo, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.