#270: Alexander Kolliari-Turner – Anabolic Steroids, Muscle Memory & Advances in Drug Testing

Links: Go to episode page Receive Danny's free emails Subscribe to Sigma Nutrition Premium About This Episode: Alex is currently completing a PhD at the University of Brighton in the UK, investigating the implications of RNA sequencing in the detection of anabolic steroid use and the harnessing of the molecular mechanisms of "muscle memory". He is currently conducting research aiming to address a hypothesis that suggests that the myonuclei obtained via strength training and anabolic steroid usage are retained and therefore provide long term advantages to steroid users. In This Episode We Discuss: --> The mechanism of hypertrophy via myonuclei accumulation --> Defining "muscle memory" in relation to myonuclei --> Animal models that show myonuclei don't dissappear after atrophy --> Anabolic steroids activate the stem cells in muscle (satellite cells) resulting in a donation of their nuclei into muscle fibres --> How drug testing works --> How you prove someone has taken exogenous testosterone via T:E ratios --> The Athlete Biological Passport --> Thoughts on the recent Jon Jones case --> Next generation "omic" technologies such as transcriptomics could enhance the testing protocols