Abstract

We focused our attention on the interaction between liposomes and androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS), following the hypothesis that such an interaction, if significant enough, could make the detection of prohibited steroids by the analytical procedures more problematic. The procedures normally followed by the anti-doping laboratories are based on GC-MS analysis, after enzymatic hydrolysis, of the corresponding TMS-derivatives. We have considered different steroid hormones and their metabolites (testosterone, epitestosterone, nandrolone, androsterone, etiocholanolone, norandrosterone, noretiocholanolone) as free drugs, and various liposome preparations differ in nature (anionic, weak anionic, non ionic, cationic) and phospholipid content and several liposome formulations (both purified standards and pharmaceutical formulations) are commercially available in Italy). We have preliminarily shown that an interaction between liposomes and androgenic anabolic steroids occurs. This interaction can cause a reduced efficacy of the analytical procedures used; the amount of steroid detected in the samples was significantly reduced after liposome addition. Aus dem Text