Androgenic anabolic steroids, exercise and the heart.

The book is of interest for numerous biomedical fields including internal medicine, cardiology, sports medicine, exercise physiology, pharmacology and tumour research as well as for sports and anti-doping measures.

Univ.-Prof. mult. Dr. med. Dr. h. c. mult. Wildor Hollmann:

"The findings from this project have high clinical interest as a hypertrophy of the cardiac muscle cells occurs in connection with a reduction of the capillarization during physical exercise. The consequence may be a disproportion between the oxygen demand and the oxygen supply, which can trigger an infarct.

The findings have great practical importance both for medical knowledge and antidoping measures. The World Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS) of 128 nations awarded Tagarakis and his colleagues for this contribution at the World Congress of Sports Medicine in Athens, Greece (1994) with first place."

Summary

The present studies investigated the effect of androgenic anabolic steroids and physical exercise on the cardiac myocyte hypertrophy and capillarization.
The most important findings are:

? Already after three weeks training without steroid treatment induced an improved cardiac capillarization (angiogenesis - new capillary formation).
? All applied steroids (Dianabol, Oral-Turinabol, Testosterone-propionate) impaired the exercise induced increase in the capillary supply (angiogenesis inhibition).
? The reported differences became more pronounced over six weeks.
It can be concluded that anabolic steroids and Testosterone-propionate inhibit the exercise induced angiogenesis and impair the cardiac capillary supply. Furthermore, they lead to a mild myocyte hypertrophy. During intensive aerobic dynamic physical work, these alterations could lead to an imbalance between the myocardial oxygen supply and demand.

Zusammenfassung

Es wurden Untersuchungen über den Einfluss androgener anaboler Steroide bei körperlichem Training auf die Herzmuskelzellen und der Kapillarisierung des Myokardards durchgeführt.
Die wesentlichsten Befunde lauten:

? Bereits das dreiwöchige Training bewirkte bei den unbehandelten Tieren eine Zunahme der Kapillarisierung des Herzens (Angiogenese - Kapillarneubildung).
? Alle angewandten Steroide (Dianabol, Oral-Turinabol, Testosteron-propionat) hoben die trainingsbedingte Kapillarvermehrung auf (Hemmung der Angiogenese).
? Die genannten Differenzen traten nach einem sechswöchigen Training noch deutlicher zur Tage.
Aus den Befunden lässt sich schließen, dass anabole Steroide und Testosteron-propionat die trainingsinduzierte Angiogenese verhindern und die Kapillarisierung des Herzens beeinträchtigen. Dazu ist eine geringfügige Myozytenhypertrophie zu beobachten. Unter der Bedingung einer intensiven aeroben dynamischen körperlichen Arbeit könnte hierdurch ein Missverhältnis zwischen Sauerstoffbedarf und Sauerstoffangebot im Myokard auftreten.