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Athletes may be cheating and boosting their performance with a new, undetectable method that dramatically boosts muscle function, experts have warned.
Mitochondrial transplantation involves taking tissue from one part of the body, purifying powerhouse cells called mitochondria, and injecting them into areas with tissue damage.
Exactly how it works is not yet fully understood, but the therapy has shown promise as a treatment for heart conditions in children.
Now, scientists suspect people are experimenting with the technique to enhance athletic performance. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is understood to be investigating it for the first time.
Dr James McCully, associate professor of surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital, often hears from desperate parents who want to know if mitochondrial transplantation could help their children.
Sixteen youngsters have undergone the procedure at the hospital, with 80% able to come of life-saving mechanical support for their hearts and lungs after the treatment.
About a year before the Paris Olympics, Dr McCully started getting sports-related enquiries. Speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting in Boston, he said: “I keep getting phone calls about this. It’s easy to do.
“I can see this helping people very much, especially in endurance things. I’d be surprised if it hasn’t been done, it is so easy.”
Found within cells, mitochondria are organelles often described as the “powerhouse of the cell” because they produce chemical energy through a process called aerobic respiration.
Transplantation therapy remains experimental but “it seems to have worked in every organ we’ve looked at”, Dr McCully said.
In a 2020 study, older mice with atrophied legs were injected with mitochondria from younger mice.
Dr McCully said: “The muscles in the mice leg were so atrophied that I don’t even know if I got the injection properly into the muscle but on day one the animals were running 50% longer and 50% faster.
“We’ve done the same thing with younger mice and the next day the guy running the experiments told me, ‘What the hell did you do with the mice?’ because they were running faster than the treadmill and he had to keep pulling them back.”
The test with older mice ended after six weeks but only because untreated mice in a control group started dying.
Anti-doping officials face a constant battle to root out use of performance enhancing substances and procedures, such as steroids, human growth hormone and blood doping.
Experts on WADA’s Prohibited List Expert Advisory Group are understood to be discussing the issue of mitochondrial transplantation at a meeting later this month.
Dr McCully said the technique would be very hard to spot. He added: “Once the technology is out there, it’s pretty hard to close Pandora’s box.”
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