Homeostatic signature of anabolic steroids in cattle using 1H-13C HMBC NMR metabonomics

We used metabonomics to discriminate the urinary signature of different anabolic steroid treatments in cattle having different physiological backgrounds (age, sex, and race). H-1-C-13 heteronuclear multiple bonding connectivity NMR spectroscopy and multivariate statistical methods reveal that metabolites such as trimethylamine-N-oxide, dimethylamine, hippurate, creatine, creatinine, and citrate characterize the biological fingerprint of anabolic treatment. These urinary biomarkers suggest an overall homeostatic adaptation in nitrogen and energy metabolism. From results obtained in this study, it is now possible to consider metabonomics as a complementary method usable to improve doping control strategies to detect fraudulent anabolic treatment in cattle since the oriented global metabolic response provides helpful discrimination.