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Substances: Repoxygen

Repoxygen is the tradename for a type of gene therapy that is claimed to induce controlled release of erythropoietin (EPO) in response to low oxygen concentration.

EPO stimulates the production of red blood cells (RBC) thereby increasing the amount of oxygen the blood can deliver to the muscles.

Repoxygen has been developed to treat patients with anaemia. It is activated in response to low oxygen concentration in surrounding tissue and turned off again once systemic oxygen concentration has been restored. Hence this process is said to be controlled/self-regulating and essentially mimics, in the muscle, what normally occurs in the human kidney when EPO is produced naturally.

Athletes may consider using Repoxygen as a means of increasing RBC mass. However in principle, if Repoxygen acts as described, it should not raise RBC levels above normal due to it's self-regulating properties and therefore may be a poor choice for doping purposes.

Side effects

The self-regulation function of Repoxygen observed in laboratory research is so far unproven in human tissue. Therefore the illegitimate use of Repoxygen may be an extremely dangerous practice.

Side effects caused by increasing RBC levels unnaturally include the blood becoming viscous and causing the heart to work harder to pump the blood. Viscous blood is also more prone to clotting.

Such side effects could also increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and pulmonary embolism (lung clot). The risk is exacerbated by dehydration, which often occurs during endurance exercise.

Status in Sport

Repoxygen is prohibited both in and out of competition under the World Anti-Doping Code 2007 Prohibited List (effective from 01/01/07).

 

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