Defending Dynepo detection

Doping analysis as the detection of prohibited substances in an athlete's bodily specimen is not solely a scientific task; anti-doping scientists are challenged by the athlete's experts and have to defend their results in front of arbitration panels such as the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS). Compliance with the internationally accepted standards issued by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is commonly the main aspect to prove and demonstrate. Taking the example of four cases of doping with Epoetin delta (Dynepo) in endurance disciplines like marathon, triathlon, and cycling, the challenges and experiences in court and the argumentation lines of the defence experts are discussed. In all cases, doping with Epoetin delta was detected by two methods: isoelectric focusing (IEF) and SDS-PAGE. Epoetin delta is known to be produced in a human fibrosoma cell line. The slightly more abundant bands alpha and beta result in a short detection window using IEF analysis alone. With the additional complementary information obtained by SDS-PAGE analysis, data interpretation and defence in court is facilitated. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.