Teaching New Tricks to an Old Dog: Erythropoietin (Epo) "Doping" to Treat the Metabolic Syndrome!?
Figure 1: Schematic illustration of the molecular structure of EPO ( Wikipedia ) Have you ever wondered, why there are no obese competitive bicyclists? Because of the enormous calorie expenditure on "The Tour" and similar events? Well, according to the results of a recent study from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda ( Foskett. 2011 ), one of the "supplements" many of these athletes have been found to (ab-)use, may factor in the equation, as well. Foskett et al. followed up on the results of recent studies which suggest a role of Erythropoietin (Epo) signaling in the regulation of body weight, fat mass, and glucose metabolism ( Hojman. 2009 / Katz. 2010 ). They fed a group of mice the standard hypercaloric (5240 kcal/kg) "high fat" diet containing 60 kcal% fat to induce what researchers consider a good model for the metabolic syndrome, i.e. so-called "diet induced obesity" (DIO) in their lab...