合成代谢类固醇是男性性激素睾酮的化学合成衍生物。它们被用于医学,因为它们能够支持肌肉生长和愈合,并被运动员用于审美目的和增加运动表现,但是另一个主要用途是使动物育肥以增加肉类产量。地球上的人越多,对肉类生产和合成代谢类固醇的需求越大,动物的生长就越快,最重要的是,增加肌肉量。合成代谢类固醇也被证明会影响所有器官和组织的副作用,如肝和肾实质损害,心肌退化,器官生长,凝血障碍,增加肌肉和肌腱断裂的风险。合成代谢类固醇对发育中的大脑也有许多有害影响,例如脑萎缩和基因表达的变化以及与认知功能有关的神经回路的变化。行为变化,如侵略,烦躁,焦虑和抑郁与大脑的变化有关。就长期毒性而言,对生殖系统的影响最大,即,睾丸萎缩和不孕。因此,他们的虐待可以被认为是一个公共卫生问题。在世界许多国家,比如美国,加拿大,中国,阿根廷,澳大利亚,和其他大型肉类生产商,允许使用类固醇,但在欧盟的所有国家都严格禁止在育肥动物中使用合成代谢类固醇。来自许多国家的肉类在出口到欧洲之前必须仔细检查和监测类固醇。与质谱检测器和免疫化学方法相结合的气相或液相色谱法最常用于分析这些物质。这些方法被认为是几十年来最现代的方法,但如果他们面对新的合成类固醇衍生物并想要满足肉类安全要求,则可能完全无效。过去几年的问题是浓度非常低的合成代谢物质的“鸡尾酒”的应用,难以检测并且难以使用常规检测方法进行量化。这就是为什么科学家试图寻找新的检测方法,主要基于组织和细胞结构及其代谢的变化。这篇综述将这些知识收集成一个连贯的形式,其发现有助于发现组织变化的组合,这些变化将形成合成代谢误用的典型证据。
Anabolic steroids are chemically synthetic derivatives of the male sex hormone testosterone. They are used in medicine for their ability to support muscle growth and healing and by athletes for esthetic purposes and to increase sports performance, but another major use is in fattening animals to increase meat production. The more people there are on Earth, the greater the need for meat production and anabolic steroids accelerate the growth of animals and, most importantly, increase the amount of muscle mass. Anabolic steroids also have proven side effects that affect all organs and tissues, such as liver and kidney parenchymal damage, heart muscle degeneration, organ growth, coagulation disorders, and increased risk of muscle and tendon rupture. Anabolic steroids also have a number of harmful effects on the developing brain, such as brain atrophy and changes in gene expression with consequent changes in the neural circuits involved in cognitive functions. Behavioral changes such as aggression, irritability, anxiety and depression are related to changes in the brain. In terms of long-term toxicity, the greatest impact is on the reproductive system, i.e., testicular shrinkage and infertility. Therefore, their abuse can be considered a public health problem. In many countries around the world, such as the United States, Canada, China, Argentina, Australia, and other large meat producers, the use of steroids is permitted but in all countries of the European Union there is a strict ban on the use of anabolic steroids in fattening animals. Meat from a lot of countries must be carefully inspected and monitored for steroids before export to Europe. Gas or liquid chromatography methods in combination with mass spectrometry detectors and immunochemical methods are most often used for the analysis of these substances. These methods have been considered the most modern for decades, but can be completely ineffective if they face new synthetic steroid derivatives and want to meet meat safety requirements. The problem of last years is the application of \"cocktails\" of anabolic substances with very low concentrations, which are difficult to detect and are difficult to quantify using conventional detection methods. This is the reason why scientists are trying to find new methods of detection, mainly based on changes in the structure of tissues and cells and their metabolism. This
review gathered this knowledge into a coherent form and its findings could help in finding such a combination of changes in tissues that would form a typical picture for evidence of anabolic misuse.