The science of steroids

Affiliations.

  • 1 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, 3800, Australia; Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism, Hudson Institute, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Vic, Australia. Electronic address: [email protected].
  • 2 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Vic, 3800, Australia.
  • 3 The Richie Centre, Hudson Institute, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Vic, Australia; Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Vic, Australia.
  • PMID: 31147162
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.siny.2019.05.005

Steroids are complex lipophilic molecules that have many actions in the body to regulate cellular, tissue and organ functions across the life-span. Steroid hormones such as cortisol, aldosterone, estradiol and testosterone are synthesised from cholesterol in specialised endocrine cells in the adrenal gland, ovary and testis, and released into the circulation when required. Steroid hormones move freely into cells to activate intracellular nuclear receptors that function as multi-domain ligand-dependent transcriptional regulators in the cell nucleus. Activated nuclear receptors modify expression of hundreds to thousands of specific target genes in the genome. Steroid hormone actions in the fetus include developmental roles in the respiratory system, brain, and cardiovascular system. The synthetic glucocorticoid steroid betamethasone is used antenatally to reduce the complications of preterm birth. Development of novel selective partial glucocorticoid receptor agonists may provide improved therapies to treat the respiratory complications of preterm birth and spare the deleterious effects of postnatal glucocorticoids in other organs.

Keywords: Betamethasone; Fetal lung development; Glucocorticoid receptor; Glucocorticoids; Steroids.

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Fetal Development / physiology
  • Glucocorticoids / pharmacology
  • Lung / drug effects
  • Lung / embryology
  • Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear / physiology
  • Receptors, Steroid / physiology
  • Signal Transduction / physiology
  • Steroids / biosynthesis
  • Steroids / physiology*
  • Glucocorticoids
  • Receptors, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear
  • Receptors, Steroid
  • Search Menu
  • Advance articles
  • Author Guidelines
  • Open Access
  • About Integrative and Comparative Biology
  • About the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertising and Corporate Services
  • Journals Career Network
  • Self-Archiving Policy
  • Dispatch Dates
  • Journals on Oxford Academic
  • Books on Oxford Academic

Article Contents

Introduction, implications of studies of humans for studies of nonhuman animals, conclusions, acknowledgments.

  • < Previous

Steroid use and human performance: Lessons for integrative biologists

From the symposium “Hormonal Regulation of Whole-Animal Performance: Implications for Selection” presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 3–7, 2009, at Boston, Massachusetts.

2 Present address: Department of Biology, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD 57069, USA

  • Article contents
  • Figures & tables
  • Supplementary Data

Jerry F. Husak, Duncan J. Irschick, Steroid use and human performance: Lessons for integrative biologists, Integrative and Comparative Biology , Volume 49, Issue 4, October 2009, Pages 354–364, https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icp015

  • Permissions Icon Permissions

While recent studies have begun to address how hormones mediate whole-animal performance traits, the field conspicuously lags behind research conducted on humans. Recent studies of human steroid use have revealed that steroid use increases muscle cross-sectional area and mass, largely due to increases in protein synthesis, and muscle fiber hypertrophy attributable to an increased number of satellite cells and myonuclei per unit area. These biochemical and cellular effects on skeletal muscle morphology translate into increased power and work during weight-lifting and enhanced performance in burst, sprinting activities. However, there are no unequivocal data that human steroid use enhances endurance performance or muscle fatigability or recovery. The effects of steroids on human morphology and performance are in general consistent with results found for nonhuman animals, though there are notable discrepancies. However, some of the discrepancies may be due to a paucity of comparative data on how testosterone affects muscle physiology and subsequent performance across different regions of the body and across vertebrate taxa. Therefore, we advocate more research on the basic relationships among hormones, morphology, and performance. Based on results from human studies, we recommend that integrative biologists interested in studying hormone regulation of performance should take into account training, timing of administration, and dosage administered when designing experiments or field studies. We also argue that more information is needed on the long-term effects of hormone manipulation on performance and fitness.

One of the most widely discussed and controversial arenas of human performance concerns the use of steroid supplements to enhance athletic ability for a variety of sports, ranging from bicycling to baseball. There is strong evidence that human athletes have attempted to enhance their athletic performance using steroids since the 1950s, but whether, and in which sports, steroids are actually effective remains controversial (reviewed by Ryan 1981 ; George 2003 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ). In general, steroids used by athletes encompass a wide variety of forms of the androgen testosterone (George 2003 ), and most seem to have the classical androgenic and anabolic effects on men, although steroid use by women cannot be ignored (Malarkey et al. 1991 ; Gruber and Pope 2000 ). Alternative forms of testosterone (e.g., testosterone enanthate, methandrostenolone) are typically used by those desiring enhanced performance because ingested or injected testosterone is quickly metabolized into inactive forms (Wilson 1988 ). Thus, studies of humans that we cite involve testosterone derivatives. Early studies of the effects of steroids on human performance, however, had major flaws in design, such as lack of control groups and a double-blind procedure, the presence of confounding factors (e.g., differences in level of exercise and in motivation), and inappropriate statistical techniques (reviewed by Bhasin et al. 2001 ; George 2003 ). These problems left open for many years the question of whether, and in what capacity, steroids actually enhance athletic performance, until more recent studies conclusively showed significant effects of steroids.

The topic of steroid effects on human athletic performance is germane to an emerging field of research investigating hormonal effects on animals’ performance (e.g., sprint speed, endurance capacity, bite-force capacity) (Husak et al. 2009a ), as testosterone may exert general effects on performance across widely divergent vertebrate taxa. Our goal in this review is to interpret the effects of steroids on human performance in this broader context of hormonal effects across a wider range of taxa. We are particularly interested in drawing lessons and potential avenues of research for animal biologists from published research on humans. We have performed a selective review of studies examining how humans' use of steroids affects skeletal muscle physiology and subsequent athletic performance. While studies of performance on nonhumans have dealt extensively with the effects of morphological traits on performance and the impact of performance on individual fitness (Arnold 1983 ; Garland and Losos 1994 ; Irschick and Garland 2001 ; Irschick et al. 2007 , 2008 ; Husak et al. 2009a ), there has been relatively little synthetic discussion of how hormones affect performance in non-human animals. We also point the reader towards several recent reviews of steroid use and performance by humans for details not discussed in our review (Bhasin et al. 2001 ; George 2003 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ).

General effects of testosterone on the phenotype of males

The development of primary and secondary sexual characteristics is stimulated by testosterone in vertebrate males, and these effects can be either organizational or activational in nature (Norris 1997 ; Hadley 2000 ). Organizational effects tend to occur early in development, and during a critical window of time, thereby resulting in permanent effects. On the other hand, activational effects occur in adults, and the effects are typically temporary (Arnold and Breedlove 1985 ). The hypothalamus stimulates production of gonadotropin-releasing hormone, which in turn stimulates production of luetenizing hormone in the anterior pituitary. Luetenizing hormone then stimulates production of testosterone in the Leydig cells of the testes. Testosterone then circulates throughout the body where it exerts effects on multiple target tissues that have the appropriate receptors or appropriate enzymes (e.g., aromatase or 5α-reductase) to convert testosterone for binding to other types of receptors (Kicman 2008 ). The widespread effects of circulating levels of testosterone on aggression, secondary sexual traits, and growth of skeletal muscle in males of many vertebrate species are well-documented (Marler and Moore 1988 ; Wingfield et al. 1990 ; Ketterson and Nolan 1999 ; Sinervo et al. 2000 ; Ketterson et al. 2001 ; Oliveira 2004 ; Adkins-Regan 2005 ; Hau 2007 ; contributions in this issue). In particular, production of testosterone by males has been linked with the expression of color and behavioral display signals, as well as aggression (Marler and Moore 1988 ; Kimball and Ligon 1999 ; Hews and Quinn 2003 ; Adkins-Regan 2005 ; Cox et al. 2008 ) and increased growth (Fennell and Scanes 1992 ; Borski et al. 1996 ; Cox and John-Alder 2005 ), although this latter effect may depend on specific selective pressures on males (Cox and John-Alder 2005 ).

Effects of testosterone on the physiology of human skeletal muscle

Testosterone has multiple effects on skeletal muscle at the biochemical and cellular levels, but the direct cause-and-effect relationships among these effects are still unclear (Sinha-Hikim 2002 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ). The studies that we discuss here, and throughout the paper are from experiments or correlative studies conducted on adult individuals such that the effects seen are activational in nature, causing rather rapid changes to the phenotype. Increased testosterone causes increased protein synthesis by muscle cells (Griggs et al. 1989 ; Kadi et al. 1999 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ), which is necessary for anabolic effects and an increase in lean muscle mass. Sinha-Hikim et al. ( 2002 ) found a dose-dependent increase in the mean number of myonuclei found in skeletal muscle fibers ( vastus lateralis muscle) with testosterone supplementation, as well as in the number of myonuclei per fiber (see also Eriksson et al. 2005 ). This increase was also associated with an increase in the number of satellite cells in the muscle tissue (but see Eriksson et al. 2005 ). Satellite cells are progenitor cells found external to muscle fibers that are incorporated into fibers and promote repair and growth of the muscle (Kadi and Thornell 2000 ; Reimann et al. 2000 ). However, the mechanism by which testosterone causes an increase in the number of satellite cells is unknown and could be due to testosterone (1) promoting cell division of satellite cells, (2) inhibiting apoptosis of satellite cells, or (3) causing differentiation of stem cells into satellite cells (Sinha-Hikim 2002 ). In any case, the functional implications for these findings are clear. More satellite cells likely result in more myonuclei per fiber, which, combined with increased protein synthesis, contribute to increases in muscle growth via an increased number and hypertrophy of muscle fibers (Kadi 2000 ; Kadi and Thornell 2000 ).

Testosterone also appears to cause a dose-dependent increase in the cross-sectional area of muscle fibers, although details about which types of fibers are affected and where in the body this occurs remains equivocal. Testosterone may increase the cross-sectional area of both type I (oxidative “slow twitch”) and type II (glycolytic “fast twitch”) fibers simultaneously after administration (Sinha-Hikim 2002 ; Eriksson et al. 2005 ), but other studies have shown greater increases in type I than in type II fibers (Hartgens et al. 1996 ; Kadi et al. 1999 ; also in growing rats, Ustunelet al. 2003 ), increased size in only type I fibers (Alén et al. 1984 ; Kuipers et al. 1991 , 1993 ), or increased size in only type II fibers (Hartgens et al. 2002 ). These mixed results are intriguing, because they suggest that different parts of the body, and, hence, different performance traits, may be affected differently by elevated testosterone levels. The likely mechanism for these differences is variation in density of receptors within the myonuclei of muscle fibers in different regions of the body (Kadi 2000 ; Kadi et al. 2000 ). An alternative hypothesis is that different types of fiber have differing relationships between the number of internal myonuclei and muscle cross-sectional area during hypertrophy (Bruusgaard et al. 2003 ). That is, some types of fibers may have internal myonuclei that can serve larger “nuclear domains” than can other types of fibers (reviewed by Gundersen and Bruusgaard 2008 ). If either of these hypothesized mechanisms is correct, then circulating levels of testosterone may only explain a portion of inter-individual (or interspecific) variation in performance. Testosterone may also stimulate changes in the proportions of types of fibers in muscles (Holmang et al. 1990 ; Pette and Staron 1997 ), although evidence for this effect in humans is mixed. For example, Sinha-Hikim et al. ( 2002 ) did not observe a change in the proportions of type I and type II fibers after administration of testosterone.

Changes in lower-level traits (e.g., protein synthesis, number of satellite cells, cross sectional area of muscle fibers) after testosterone supplementation, as described above, thus, result in changes at the whole-muscle level and explain many of the classic effects of testosterone that are desired by humans using steroids. That is, increasing testosterone via steroid use increases body weight, lean body mass, as well as cross-sectional area, circumference, and mass of individual muscles (i.e., “body dimensions”); however, there are numerous studies with contradictory results, finding no change in one, or all, of these traits, depending on the drug used, the dose taken, and the duration of use (reviewed by Bhasin et al. 2001 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ). The finding that testosterone can change muscle physiology and increase whole-muscle size and/or body mass is consistent with results in nonhuman animals. For example, testosterone implants increased size and number of fibers in the sonic muscles of male plainfin midshipman fish ( Porichthys notatus ) (Brantley et al. 1993 ). Similarly, testosterone supplementation increased muscle mass and changed contractile properties of trunk muscles of male grey treefrogs ( Hyla chrysoscelis ) (Girgenrath and Marsh 2003) and of forelimb muscles of male frogs ( Xenopus laevis , Regnier and Herrera 1993 ; Rana pipiens , Sidor and Blackburn 1998 ).

Effects of testosterone on humans’ performance

Whether steroids actually enhance performance of athletes was a subject of great controversy throughout the 1980s and 1990s (Ryan 1981 ; Haupt and Rovere 1984 ; Cowart 1987 ; Wilson 1988 ; Elashoff et al. 1991 ; Strauss and Yesalis 1991 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ), largely due to flaws in design of early studies (see above). However, the past decade has seen a surge in more carefully designed studies that have convincingly tested whether, all else equal, steroids increase performance. Hartgens and Kuipers ( 2004 ) found that 21 out of 29 studies they reviewed found an increase in humans’ strength after steroid use, with improvements in strength ranging from 5% to 20%. Storer et al. ( 2003 ) found that testosterone caused a dose-dependent increase in maximal voluntary strength of the leg (i.e., amount of weight lifted in a leg press), as well as in leg power (i.e., the rate of force generation). They further tested whether increased muscle strength was due simply to increased muscle mass or to changes in the contractile quality of muscle affected by testosterone, but they found no change in specific tension, or in the amount of force generated per unit volume of muscle. This latter result suggests that, at least for leg-press performance, testosterone increases strength by increasing muscle mass and not by changing contractile properties. Rogerson et al. ( 2007 ) found that supraphysiological doses of testosterone increased maximal voluntary strength during bench presses (see also Giorgi et al. 1999 ) and increased output of work and output of power during cycle sprinting compared to placebo control subjects. Thus, “burst” or “sprint” performance traits appear to be enhanced by increased testosterone, and this is in general agreement with studies of nonhuman animals (John-Alder et al. 1996 , 1997 ; Klukowski et al. 1998 ; Husak et al. 2007 ). For example, experimentally elevated levels of testosterone caused increased sprint speed, relative to sham-implanted individuals, in northern fence lizards ( Sceloporus undulatus ) (Klukowski et al. 1998 ). These findings contrast with results for endurance events, in which no increase in performance has been detected experimentally in humans (reviewed in George 2003 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ). The finding that endurance by humans is not enhanced by testosterone is unexpected since testosterone may increase hemoglobin concentrations and hematocrit (Alén 1985 , but see Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ) and exogenous testosterone increases endurance in rats (Tamaki et al. 2001 ) and male side-blotched lizards ( Uta stansburiana ) (Sinervo et al. 2000 ). More studies of the effects of increased testosterone on endurance would help to better clarify these seemingly paradoxical findings. One possibility that might explain species’ differences in endurance is the relative proportion of type I fibers available for enhancement, which likely varies across species (Bonine et al. 2005 ), although this hypothesis needs explicit testing. Steroid use does not seem to consistently enhance recovery time after strenuous exercise (reviewed in Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ), although it may in non-human animals (Tamaki et al. 2001 ). Storer et al. ( 2003 ) also found no change in fatigability (i.e., the ability of a muscle to persist in performing a task) of muscle during exercise, which is consistent with other studies (George 2003 ).

One of the problems in early studies of steroid effects was that the participants’ history of training and exercise while taking steroids was not taken into account or controlled (Bhasin et al. 2001 ; George 2003 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ). Recent studies have shown that the presence or absence of exercise training during testosterone supplementation can have a marked impact on how much performance is enhanced, thus complicating results when training is not controlled. Bhasin et al. ( 2001 ) reviewed several examples of such results. They pointed out that testosterone supplementation alone may increase strength from baseline levels, but so will exercise alone with a placebo, such that strength levels with exercise alone are comparable to those with testosterone addition alone (Bhasin et al. 1996 ). Testosterone supplementation while undergoing exercise training typically has the greatest increase in strength compared to exercise only or testosterone only (Bhasin et al. 1996 , 2001 ). These findings are consistent with those of others (reviewed by George 2003 ). Indeed, George ( 2003 ) suggested that steroids will only consistently enhance strength if three conditions are met: (1) steroids are given to individuals who have been training and who continue to train while taking steroids, (2) the experimental subjects have a high protein diet throughout the experiment, and (3) changes in performance are measured by the technique with which the individuals were training while taking steroids. That is, one may, or may not, find a change in bench-press performance if individuals trained with leg presses, and not bench presses, while taking steroids. We note that the confounding effect of training is a rather intuitive finding, but it does point out potential problems in studies of non-human animals, specifically laboratory studies, which we address below.

Given the effects of steroids on physiology and performance of human muscle, what can integrative biologists take away from these findings? We suggest that they can provide some valuable insights into the mechanisms of how hormones might regulate whole-animal performance traits in nonhuman animals. The most obvious lesson is that manipulating the circulating levels of testosterone, or its derivatives, increases overall strength, which has apparent benefits for performance in bursts, such as sprint speed. In contrast, there is little evidence from studies on humans for a positive effect on capacity for endurance, which is counter-intuitive, given the known effect of testosterone on hemoglobin concentrations and hematocrit. However, these same studies of humans also raise a host of issues that merit special consideration by researchers interested in hormonal effects on nonhuman animals, including effect of training, timing of administration, and dosage administered. We also argue that more information is needed on the long-term effects of hormonal manipulation on performance and fitness. Although recent studies suggest that increasing testosterone levels can enhance certain types of performance, we are not advocating or justifying the use of steroids by humans. There are numerous side effects of prolonged steroid use in humans, including cardiovascular problems, impaired reproductive function, altered behavior, increased risk of certain tumors and cancers, and decreased immune function, among others (reviewed by Pärssinen and Seppälä 2002 ; George 2003 ). These “side-effects” are in accordance with studies of nonhuman animals where higher testosterone levels are associated with such detrimental effects as increased loads of parasites, reduced immunocompetence, decreased body condition, reduced growth, and increased use of energy, ultimately resulting in reduced survival (Marler and Moore 1988 ; Folstad and Karter 1992 ; Salvador et al. 1996 ; Wikelski et al. 1999 , 2004 ; Moore et al. 2000 ; Peters 2000 ; Klukowski and Nelson 2001 ; Wingfield et al. 2001 ; Hau et al. 2004 ). Indeed, it is the presence of these very “side-effects” that has driven a great deal of research on behavioral and life-history tradeoffs mediated by testosterone (Ketterson and Nolan 1999 ; Ketterson et al. 2001 ). Higher levels of testosterone may enhance performance and increase success at some tasks, but its widespread “pleiotropic” effects on other aspects of the phenotype may result in a net detriment to fitness (Raouf et al. 1997 ; Reed et al. 2006 ; Ketterson et al. 2009).

We encourage researchers to complete more detailed studies of the interactions among hormones, morphology, and performance, especially across different types of performance traits (dynamic versus regulatory, see Husak et al. 2009a ). Comparative data on whether the same, or different, hormones affect the same performance traits in different taxa (e.g., burst speed in fish, sprint speed in lizards) would be useful for understanding how different species have evolved unique, or conserved, endocrine control of morphology and function. A comparative approach is important, as other studies have shown different effects of testosterone on performance in different taxa (e.g., an increase in endurance for rats and lizards, but none for humans), and more research is needed to determine whether such differences are valid or purely methodological. Even though testosterone is confined to vertebrates, it is possible that studies with invertebrates may reveal similar effects on performance via different hormones, e.g., recent work showing a seemingly similar role of juvenile hormone for invertebrates as testosterone has for vertebrates (Contreras-Garduno et al. 2009 ; see also Zera 2006 ; Zera et al. 2007 ; Lorenz and Gäde 2009).

Correlative studies relating endogenous circulating hormone levels to natural variation in performance traits can provide valuable insight into potential mechanistic regulators of performance, but manipulations allow a more detailed examination of cause-and-effect relationships. Whether performance can be manipulated by reduction (castration) or supplementation (implants) of testosterone in nonhuman animals will depend on the type of performance and how it is affected by circulating levels of the androgen. Many dynamic performance traits, especially maximal performance, may show different responses to exogenous hormone in the laboratory versus field, compared to coloration or “behavioral” traits. For example, supplementation with testosterone may rapidly increase display behavior or aggression in the laboratory (Lovern et al. 2001 ; Hews and Quinn 2003 ) compared to control animals, or corticosterone supplementation may decrease sexually selected color patterns (reviewed by Husak and Moore 2008 ). These examples are in contrast to supplementing testosterone in the laboratory and testing for an effect on performance. Aggression and coloration will not likely require training of the target trait to reveal an observed effect, whereas some performance traits may require training. Furthermore, regulatory performance traits (e.g., regulation of ions in seawater), on the other hand, may respond more directly to hormonal manipulation (see McCormick 2009), and will likely not require any training, but more empirical data are necessary to make generalizations.

It is also important to more closely inspect those traits that show no significant effect of testosterone on dynamic performance after manipulation in the laboratory. Such a “noneffect” may be due to numerous possibilities, the most obvious of which is that testosterone simply has no effect on a particular type of performance. However, a second possibility is that muscles involved in performance were not adequately trained during administration of supplemental testosterone, or there was no control of exercise during the period of testosterone administration. As an hypothetical example, one might not expect to see a large increase in the maximal flight speed of birds that were never allowed to fly following administration of exogenous testosterone. Indeed, Gallotia galloti lizards given exogenous testosterone were compared to lizards given sham implants and there was no difference in maximal bite force at the end of the experiment (K. Huyghe, J.F. Husak, R. Van Damme, M. Molina-Borja, A. Herrel, in review), despite increases in mass of the jaw muscles in testosterone-supplemented males. One possible explanation for this result is that these lizards did not “train” their jaw muscles enough while in captivity to increase muscle mass sufficiently to result in a measurable enhancement of performance. It is also possible that receptor density is very low or becomes low in trained muscles. Nevertheless, while training in animals seems straightforward in principle, in practice it is far trickier, and there also appear to be striking differences among species in the effects of training. Whereas some studies of mammals have successfully increased performance through training in a laboratory (Brooks and Fahey 1984 ; Astrand and Rodahl 1986 ), similar studies with lizards have found no effect (Gleeson 1979 ; Garland et al. 1987 ). In addition, while training might be successful with animals acclimated to a laboratory setting, inducement of stress, with a concomitant effect on corticosterone (Moore and Jessop 2003 ), and potentially circulating testosterone levels, is a significant confounding factor. Another complementary option is to use field studies, where experimental groups are released into the wild to “train” themselves while accomplishing their day-to-day tasks and performing naturally. Of course, this approach also cannot take into account variation in “training” within experimental groups, as individuals will likely use their performance traits in different ways when left to their own devices. Consequently, this approach could result in unpredictable results in how hormones impact performance, unless one accepts the unlikely assumption that all experimental animals are performing in the same ways. Further, a field approach also does not take into account other “pleiotropic” effects of increased (or decreased) testosterone on the phenotype (e.g., increased activity or conspicuousness to predators), which can eliminate potential benefits to fitness from enhanced performance due to testosterone supplementation.

Studies seeking to manipulate performance with testosterone supplementation should also consider the timing of experiments. For example, testosterone should ideally be increased or decreased during times when the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonad (HPG) axis is responsive and receptors are expressed in the appropriate target tissues. Seasonal sensitivity of the male HPG axis is well documented (Fusani et al. 2000 ; Jawor et al. 2006 ; Ball and Ketterson 2008 ), and such effects should be considered. For example, male green anoles ( Anolis carolinensis ) given exogenous testosterone after the end of the breeding season in a laboratory setting did not increase head size or bite-force performance (J. Henningsen, J. Husak, D. Irschick, and I. Moore, unpublished data), presumably because some or all of the relevant target tissues were no longer sensitive to androgens. On the other hand, male brown anoles ( Anolis sagrei ) did show enhanced maximal bite force when testosterone was supplemented at the beginning of the breeding season when the target tissues are presumably sensitive to androgens (Cox et al., in press). Timing of experimentation is thus critical for designing studies examining hormonal effects, and the interaction between timing and training should also be considered, as training effects may be relevant for some seasonal periods, but not for others.

A related issue concerns how much hormone to administer to experimental subjects. Studies of human steroid use typically involve supraphysiological doses of testosterone, as this is the typical regimen for steroid-abusing athletes (George 2003 ; Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ). Indeed, many studies of steroid use by humans have been criticized for having experimental groups using physiological doses of testosterone. However, such criticism of seemingly unrealistic dosages highlights the differing goals of studies on human and non-human animals. Whereas studies of humans are focused on the role of supraphysiological doses on performance, those of nonhuman animals are more broadly interested in whether circulating testosterone affects performance within more natural bounds of variation (reviewed by Fusani et al. 2005 ; Fusani 2008 ). Supraphysiological doses can result in unexpected, or even counterintuitive, effects because endocrine systems tend to be homeostatic and compensatory after disruption via up- or down-regulation of various components within the system (Brown and Follett 1977 ).

There are few data on how testosterone affects dynamic performance during different stages of development, either in humans or in non-human animals. Practically all studies examining the effects of exogenous testosterone on humans have been on adults (reviewed by Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ), but an increasing area of concern is steroid use by teenagers (Johnston et al. 2005 ). Because they are still developing physically, steroids may have dramatically different effects on dynamic performance in developing juveniles versus older adults. For example, steroid use is known to cause closure of growth plates of long bones (George 2003 ), potentially preventing growth to full height. Any manipulative hormone study examining effects on dynamic performance should also take baseline circulating levels into account, as there may be striking differences among age groups. For example, among sexually mature male green anole lizards in a well-studied New Orleans, Louisiana (USA) population, smaller “lightweight” males have lower circulating testosterone levels (Husak et al. 2007 , 2009b ), relatively smaller heads, and lower bite forces than do larger “heavyweight” males (see Lailvaux et al., 2004; Vanhooydonck et al., 2005a), with the difference apparently due to age (Irschick and Lailvaux 2006). Smaller males with low testosterone levels seem unable to produce higher levels (Husak et al. 2009b ), suggesting that testosterone levels are likely suppressed until a critical body size when the individuals become competitive with larger males. At this body size, elevated testosterone levels may accelerate growth of the head and increase bite force, although more data are needed to test this hypothesis. This ontogenetic increase in testosterone levels suggests that exogenous administration will have quite different effects on different age groups. For example, many hormones exert threshold effects (reviewed in Hews and Moore 1997 ) in which increased amounts above a threshold level produce little noticeable effect, suggesting that exogenous administration may accomplish little for larger lizards already with high testosterone levels, but may have substantial effects on smaller lizards with low testosterone levels.

In this context, long-term studies in animal species that focus on younger individuals (see Cox and John-Alder 2005 and references therein) might be useful for understanding the potential costs and benefits of hormones in improving or decreasing dynamic performance. Scientists are well-aware of some of the short-term activational effects of testosterone in humans and nonhuman animals, but while some long-term effects of supraphysiological doses on human health are recognized (see Hartgens and Kuipers 2004 ), we know far less about long-term effects of elevated (but not supraphysiological) testosterone levels on longevity and lifetime reproductive success of nonhuman animals. Ethical considerations may preclude long-term hormone implantation in humans and nonhuman animals, but correlating natural variation in testosterone levels both with performance traits and with other demographic features, such as longevity and lifetime reproductive success, would be useful for understanding chronic effects. Elegant studies with the dark-eyed junco ( Junco hyemalis ) (Ketterson et al. 2001 ; Reed et al. 2006 ) show complex trade-offs between different components of reproductive success (e.g., investment in extra-pair fertilizations versus parental care) as a result of testosterone supplementation; other similar trade-offs might be occurring over longer time spans in other animal species.

Despite popular interest in steroids and their effects on human athletic performance, we still lack a broad understanding of the effects of testosterone on performance in different animal species.

Our review of the literature on human steroids highlights several issues that could prove useful for integrative biologists interested in determining links among hormones, morphology, performance, and fitness in nonhuman animal species. First, studies of steroid use by humans reveal many caveats related to experimental design and interpretation that should be considered by those studying nonhuman animals (e.g., training, diet, dosage effects). Second, because of conflicting results of testosterone on different performance traits (e.g., burst performance versus endurance), more data are needed for such biomechanically opposing performance traits; testosterone may enhance multiple kinds of performance in some species, and only one kind in another. Third, while testosterone may have some general effects on dynamic performance in vertebrates, are there other hormones (e.g., juvenile hormone) that play a similar role in invertebrates? Finally, human steroid abusers often use various systems of “stacking”, where multiple drugs are taken in a specific order (George 2003 ), and such regimens are believed, by those who use them, to markedly increase dynamic performance. However, few studies have specifically examined how these regimes affect performance, or how the different regimes may be more, or less, effective in enhancing performance, either in humans or in non-human animal species. Furthermore, such practices are not restricted to multiple androgens, but may also include other hormones, such as growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-I, which may, when taken exogenously, also enhance athletic performance and other aspects of the phenotype (Gibney et al. 2007 ). In this manner, the interactive effects of different hormone regimens for increasing animal performance are highly understudied. In conclusion, we have advocated an integrative approach for studying the evolution of morphology, function, and endocrine systems, and increased collaboration between researchers interested in human and in other animal systems may prove fruitful for both groups.

Financial support was provided by the National Science Foundation (IOS 0421917 to DJI and IOS 0852821 to I. T. Moore, JFH and DJI).

We are thankful to the symposium participants for fruitful discussions about hormones and performance. We thank the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, especially the Divisions of Animal Behavior, Comparative Endocrinology, and Vertebrate Morphology, for providing logistical and financial support.

Google Scholar

Google Preview

Author notes

Email alerts, citing articles via.

  • Recommend to your Library

Affiliations

  • Online ISSN 1557-7023
  • Print ISSN 1540-7063
  • Copyright © 2024 The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
  • About Oxford Academic
  • Publish journals with us
  • University press partners
  • What we publish
  • New features  
  • Open access
  • Institutional account management
  • Rights and permissions
  • Get help with access
  • Accessibility
  • Advertising
  • Media enquiries
  • Oxford University Press
  • Oxford Languages
  • University of Oxford

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide

  • Copyright © 2024 Oxford University Press
  • Cookie settings
  • Cookie policy
  • Privacy policy
  • Legal notice

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Sample research paper about steroids

Drugs generally referred to as ‘steroids’ can be categorized as anabolic and corticosteroids. Corticosteroids are drugs prescribed by the doctors to help managing inflammation in the human body and mostly used in conditions such as lupus and asthma. They are, in fact, not similar to the anabolic steroids which receive a high degree of media attention as they are used by some bodybuilders and athletes. Anabolic steroids can boost the ability of body to prevent breakdown of muscle and increase muscle growth. (Llewellyn, 2007)

To understand steroids and how they work in the body, it is pertinent to define the concept of Anabolic steroids. Anabolic means building up, as contrary to catabolic which means breaking down. The term ‘Anabolic steroids’ is related to synthesizing or manufacturing derivatives specifically of the male hormone, testosterone. There are two major functions of testosterone on the body, the androgenic and anabolic effect. The anabolic effect is mainly responsible for muscular development, growth and the adult male’s masculine body contour. The androgenic impact provokes the growth of the male secondary features after puberty, resulting in the growth of pubic hair, beard, voice change and development of penis.

Anabolic steroids basically work by arousing the anabolic effect either by binding or plugging into the cells that ultimately help in generating new proteins specifically in the cells. This enhanced biological activity is known as an enhancement in Ribonucleic Acid Activity. The creation of new proteins ultimately results in increasing muscle strength and size. The steroids increase or stimulate this particular biological process by connecting to the receptor sties.

Steroids can also increase retention of nitrogen which is also a biological activity. Nitrogen is present in proteins where it performs building tissues. The users of steroids experience a constructive nitrogen balance which is a preferred condition where ingestion of nitrogen from protein is much more than excretion of nitrogen.

Anabolic steroids are particular drugs similar with the chemical structure of the human body’s sex hormone ‘testosterone’, made naturally within body. Testosterone ultimately directs the body to enhance or produce male features discussed above. When the level of testosterone is increased by the anabolic steroids in blood, they result in stimulating muscle tissue to grow stronger and larger. However, the impact of excess testosterone circulating in the human body can be much harmful in the long run. (Willey, 2007)

There is no concrete evidence that exclusive high steroids doses can result in muscle growth through a specific chemical effect. In most of the animal species, the much higher quantity of anabolic steroids produces no significant muscle growth as a normal dose would. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that steroids increase muscle growth provided they are taken with scrupulous physical training and also an increased protein diet.

Once a person takes drug, it is processed in the body including four major processes; absorption; distribution; metabolism; and excretion. In ‘Absorption’, drugs are generally administered orally or intravenously. In case, drugs are processed orally, then absorption is more complex as compared to the scenario when administered intravenously. The ‘Distribution’ process involves the drug transportation all the way through blood stream. ‘Metabolism’ can be described as the chemical change created by the drug in the body. The main place where this change occurs is the liver where most of the people face problems by using steroids. ‘Excretion’ is the removal of drug from the person’s body. (Willey, 2007)

Anabolic steroids are, in fact, more toxic to the liver where they are excreted and metabolized. It is firmly believed that the side effects resulting from usage of steroids are actually dose related. Most of the body builders take high steroids than they actually need to view the desired results. However, it is not necessary to take four tablets when only one is effective.

The major risk associated with the steroids is a serious damage to liver. As is the case, the liver is more amazing and versatile organ in the body. Almost three pints of blood, in every minute, pass through liver. At one particular time, about ten percent of entire blood in the body is found in the liver. Liver stores, glycogen, copper, sugar, vitamin A, some B vitamins and also vitamin D. (Willey, 2007)

In case a liver is not working properly, the human body can face high complexities. When steroids are taken orally, they should be detoxified by liver via metabolism process already discussed. The liver then has to work much harder for abolishing toxins or poisonous substances produced by steroids. Resultantly, inflammation or hepatitis of the liver can take place. Hepatitis can lead directly to cirrhosis of the liver, a state of progressive scarring. Cirrhosis is a severe disease that kills all cells in the liver, ultimately resulting in liver failure. (Roberts, 2006)

Effects of steroids on Young Athletes

A primary objective of youth sports is to support young athletes observe and experience significant life lessons, developing a physically, healthy active lifestyle. Continuous improvement of young athletes is a vital part of the entire process. As discussed above, the anabolic steroids impact the metabolism in each and every cell. However, in some cells metabolism produce the required adaptation such as increase in the size of muscle, while in other cells creating complexities like changed lipid metabolism specifically in the liver.

Training, exercise or proper nutrition is needed for muscle growth without any extra amount of fat. For instance, in football, Olympic weight lifting and different other sports, the aim is to become explosively strong. In such cases, the steroids work in combination with a certain weight training and dietary regime particular to those sports. On the other hand, for long distance runners or road cyclists, the aim is to be capable in maintaining an extensive training load and at the same time keeping light body weight. As such anabolic steroids may be used to support these athletes recovering from such training. (More, 2004)

Anabolic steroids are specifically designed to take off the bodybuilding features of testosterone. The amount of testosterone can be significantly increased in the human body by using these anabolic steroids, which further supports the human body in muscle growth. As such the anabolic impact of steroids attracts attention of athletes who require an increase in strength and muscle mass.

An increasing number of young athletes use steroids as an instant shortcut for the purpose of performing better. However, when younger athletes use steroids either through injection or orally, they are, in fact, exposing their health and body to a wide array of threats. Buying or using steroids without a physician’s prescription is dangerous as well as illegal. (More, 2004)

Anabolic steroids have considerable effects on the moods of young athletes. Athletes taking steroids on regular basis become more irritable, aggressive and angrier, ultimately becoming depressed after they have stopped using steroids. In some cases, usage of steroids can also cause psychotic episodes. In case of boy athletes, steroids can not only terminate the growth of athlete but may cause facial blemishes, shrinking of testicles, the development of breasts and increased weight.

In girl athletes, steroids can result in the development of some male characteristics and acne can also be aggravated. More grave reactions, in young athletes of both sexes, have been associated with steroids like heart attacks, suicidal behavior and liver damage. As such it is essential for the coaches and parents to realize the phenomenon that anabolic steroids can have different grave side effects. Moreover the long-term risks associated with using steroids far outweigh the possible short-term benefits.

There are some exclusive factors related to using steroids by young athletes. Steroids load up a young athlete, especially in teenage, with synthetic testosterone. As discussed above, it can lead ultimately to premature puberty while among complexities are; premature puberty in young athletes using steroids with growth plates that are particularly open in bones causing such growth plates to close before time. (Roberts, 2006)

Several studies have highlighted a relation of steroid usage with different other high-risk attitudes such as having insecure sex, driving drunk and using other illegal drugs. Young athletes are placed in a high-risk group and as such using steroids intensifies the problem. A better solution to increase awareness about the negative and long-term effects of steroids in young athletes is to provide education about risks associated with steroids and programs for supervised confrontation training to increase substantial strength.

Difference of Steroid Abuse in Men and Women

Steroids, similar to all drugs, have many side effects- most of them can be dangerous for health while other simply undesirable. Because drugs treated as steroids can affect women and men differently, it is pertinent to separately focus on steroids abuse in both. Steroid abuse is found to be higher in men as compared with women, although the trend of abusing steroid among young women is increasing. People are motivated to abuse the steroid due to an intense desire for reducing fats in body, building muscles and improving performance in sports. Bodybuilders, according to an estimate, are the high users of anabolic steroids, while it is also widespread in other sportspersons. Some of the men abusing anabolic steroids view their body as weak and small, even if they are muscular and large. On the other hand, women abuse such drugs as they perceive their looks are obese, although they are actually muscular and lean.

Other reasons of abusing anabolic steroids by women include endeavors to lose weight. Many women eat healthy and attend gym when they are just few pounds away from normal weight, resorting to drugs. These women are more focused on different celebrities who although look thin but have considerable muscles. (Assael, 2007)

Even though, anabolic steroids assure a toned human body with specific muscle mass, yet thin. Women are of the view that recovery time from exercises is far less when they use anabolic steroids. Moreover, they also think that their mental capabilities become much shaper by using steroids. Women also abuse anabolic steroids as they perceive it to improve body image and self esteem along with increased sexual energy.

Most of the men abuse steroids to attain perfect body as they are in continuous scrutiny. Even though, the motive is becoming thin, it is, in fact, muscular body, that remains as the main attraction for abusing steroids by men. The general consensus is that the issues relating to body image commence in high school as well as in college, when men are viewed as sexual. The overall atmosphere of high schools and colleges is competitive and boys feel much insecure as compared with their friends. It has been highlighted that serious risks are related with steroid abuse, but most of the time people ignore the threats or not seeks support because they do not view themselves as drug users. (Assael, 2007)

Assael, S (2007) Steroid Nation: Juiced Home Run Totals, Anti-aging Miracles, and a Hercules in Every High School: The Secret History of America’s True Drug Addiction. ESPN; Ist edition

More, J (2004) Steroids, Sports, and Body Image: The Risks of Performance-Enhancing Drugs. Enslow Publishers

Llewellyn, W (2007) Anabolic 2007: Anabolic Steroids Reference Manual. Body of Science.

Roberts, A (2006) Anabolic Steroids: Ultimate Research Guide. Anabolic Books, LLC.

Willey, W (2007) Better Than Steroids. Trafford Publishing; Ist edition

Home — Essay Samples — Life — Steroids in Sports — Anabolic Steroids and Sports

test_template

Anabolic Steroids and Sports

  • Categories: Steroids in Sports

About this sample

close

Words: 723 |

Published: Nov 15, 2018

Words: 723 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Image of Dr. Oliver Johnson

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

  • 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
  • Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

author

Prof. Kifaru

Verified writer

  • Expert in: Life

writer

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1505 words

3 pages / 1250 words

2 pages / 1129 words

4.5 pages / 2115 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Steroids in Sports

The use of steroids in sports has been a controversial topic that has raised concerns about fairness, health risks, and the integrity of athletic competition. This essay examines the impact of steroids on sports, the ethical [...]

Pharmaceutical enhancement in sport is a widely discussed topic with arguments both for and against. Pharmaceutical enhancement is a specific form of enhancement in sport and what I will narrow my focus down to due to a [...]

The winter Olympic Games are major international sports held on ice and snow after every four years. They were first held in France in 1924. Originally, there were four winter Olympics sports which are bobsleigh, ice hockey, [...]

It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideologies. Gender inequality is a social issue, which refers to unfair rights between female and male, which leads to discrimination and unfair [...]

To be given the chance to play baseball was one of the greatest times of my life. I played baseball for four years, and every year I made the all-star team. My best friend and I played on every regular season team and every [...]

A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury which results from a bump blow or jolt to either the head or body causing the brain to move rapidly in the skull. A concussion affects normal brain function and can have severe and [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

  • Instructions Followed To The Letter
  • Deadlines Met At Every Stage
  • Unique And Plagiarism Free

steroids essay research paper

U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

  • Publications
  • Account settings
  • Advanced Search
  • Journal List
  • HHS Author Manuscripts

Logo of nihpa

Steroid Hormones and Receptors in Health and Disease

Matthias barton.

* University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

Daniel E. Frigo

† University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

Zeynep Madak-Erdogan

‡ University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

Franck Mauvais-Jarvis

§ Tulane University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA

$ Southeast Louisiana VA Medical Center, New Orleans, LA, USA

Eric R. Prossnitz

¶ University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, USA

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Steroid hormone effects have been reported for almost 140 years 1 – 3 . Research over the past 50 years has led to the discovery of steroid hormone receptors that act via both genomic and nongenomic (“rapid”) mechanisms. Steroids are involved in physiology and disease, mediating endocrine, cardiovascular, and reproductive functions and play a role in cancer, neurological, metabolic, renal, and cardiovascular diseases. 4 – 7 Over the past decades, both the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the International Committee on Rapid Responses to Steroid Hormones (RRSH) have held meetings presenting the newest science on steroid hormone biology and receptor signaling 8 – 26 ( Tables 1 and ​ and2). 2 ). Previously, both FASEB 8 – 14 and RRSH 15 – 26 organized their own conferences, usually in alternating years, and in 2018, decided to organize their first joint conference to be held in the United States. Initially, the organizers of this joint conference (i.e., authors of this manuscript) had selected West Palm Beach, FL, as the venue for the conference, which was to be held July 12–17, 2020. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier that year, plans were put on hold. Hoping for early control of the pandemic, the organizers prepared for a 4-day in-person meeting to be held in Puerto Rico, USA. However, as COVID-19 continued to be a global health concern, challenging societies, scientists, and science around the world, in late 2020, the organizers took the decision to hold the conference as a virtual meeting. The conference was ultimately held online as a 3-day meeting on May 25–27, 2021. It represented the 10th occurrence of the FASEB Science Research Conferences (SRCs) on Steroid Hormones with Daniel E. Frigo (University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA), Zeynep Madak-Erdogan (University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA) and Franck Mauvais-Jarvis (Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA) as chairs, and the 12th International Meeting on Rapid Responses to Steroid Hormones (RRSH 2020) with Matthias Barton (University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland) and Eric R. Prossnitz (University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA) as chairs.

History of the FASEB Science Research Conferences on Steroid Hormones

History of the International Meetings on Rapid Responses to Steroid Hormones

The FASEB and RRSH conferences are usually well received by the scientific community since many presentations and discussion topics include unpublished, cutting-edge research. The joint conference brought together scientists and clinicians from all areas of biology and medicine, covering a broad range of topics related to steroid hormone and steroid hormone receptor function in physiology and human health. The program included one keynote speaker, 38 scheduled invited speakers, 18 short talks (“lightning presentations”) and 28 virtual poster presentations. The conference drew a record attendance of 110 participants, reflecting an increasing interest in steroid hormone signaling in the scientific community. In terms of diversity, women constituted over 55% of attendees and over 40% of all invited speakers. Early career scientists (defined as faculty with <10 years of experience, postdoctoral associates, and graduate students) were also well represented, comprising 55% of all conference attendees.

The welcome address was given by Daniel E. Frigo on behalf of FASEB, and Eric R. Prossnitz on behalf of RRSH, who, together with other organizers, led the program. Keynote speaker Donald McDonnell (Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA) set the stage of the conference with his intriguing lecture “If we knew then what we know now, what would we have done differently to exploit nuclear receptors as drug targets?”. Dr. McDonnell, who discovered several mechanisms that led to drug treatments for hormone-responsive cancers, provided the audience with a lifetime view of his work, also looking back at the beginnings of field, which he and others pioneered. His lecture was followed by the first session of the day on nuclear steroid receptor regulation of metabolism, led by Sayeepriyadarshini Anakk (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne, IL, USA). A series of lectures by Adriana Maggi (University of Milan, Milan, Italy), Carolyn Cummins (University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada), Andrea Hevener (University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA), Sheng Wu (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA), Brian Feldman (University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA), Wen Xie (University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA), and Warren Thomas (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland) presented updates on metabolic functions of estrogen, androgen, and glucocorticoid receptors, as well as evidence for functional roles for estrogen sulfotransferase and steroid sulfatase in energy metabolism, and how aldosterone regulates renal Na + reabsorption through novel protein kinase D isoforms. The lectures were followed by lively discussions moderated by the session chairs, even though the meeting was held online. Following the first session, Dr. Yvette Seger, FASEB Director of Science Policy, introduced the science policy of FASEB and moderated a round table discussion on the subject.

The second half of the first day of the conference was dedicated to clinical aspects of therapies targeting steroid hormone receptors. The session was chaired by Jay Gertz (University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA) and Martin Wehling (University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany). Lectures addressed many areas of clinical medicine and disease, including mineralocorticoid receptor function in the treatment of cardiovascular disorders, thyroid receptor signaling in cancer, and membrane progesterone receptor function in the uterus, as well as epigenetics and cistromics in cancer and clinical trials. Lectures were presented by Iris Jaffee (Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA), James Pru (University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA), Paul Davis (Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA), Wilbert Zwart (Netherlands Cancer Institute. Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and Mathieu Lupien (University of Toronto). Following the clinical session, a number of young investigators (Florian Le Billan, University of Toronto; Alicia Arredondo Eve, University of Illinois; Ximena Calle Chalco, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile; Innocence Harvey, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA; and Jia Xu Li, University of Toronto), presented 3-minute poster abstract summaries, which were part of the subsequent virtual poster session presented the same afternoon and well received by the online audience.

The second day of the conference began with the morning session focusing on systems biology approaches to interrogate nuclear steroid receptor functions, and was chaired by Andrea Cignarella (University of Padova, Padua, Italy) and Lindsey Trevino (City of Hope, Duarte, CA, USA). Topics presented in this session included glucocorticoid receptor-dependent transcription in single cells and individual genes (Trevor Archer, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Durham, NC, USA), imaging of nuclear receptor actions at the single cell level (Fabio Stossi, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA), subcellular localization of estrogen receptor (ER) and cardiometabolism (Pierre Gourdy, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France), mechanisms of ER enhancer function (Lee Kraus, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA), and steroid G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-mediated renal fibrosis in Drosophila (Marc Tatar, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA). Lectures were again followed by talks given by young investigators (Eriko Katsuta, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY, USA; Ayca Mogol, University of Illinois; Qianying Zuo, University of Illinois; and Kendall Langsten, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA) and by a career development workshop entitled “Presenting your science to the public,” by Mila Becker, Chief Policy Officer of the Endocrine Society. The afternoon session was chaired by Martin Kelly (Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR, USA) and included a number of presentations of different aspects of steroid functions in the brain. Gabriele Rune (University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany) presented insights into the sex-dependent effects of neurosteroids in the hippocampus; Charlotte Cornil (University of Liège, Liège, Belgium) discussed nuclear and membrane-actions of neuroestrogens in the control of male sexual behavior, and Margaret Mohr (University of California, Los Angeles) provided an update on estradiol-induced hypothalamic progesterone synthesis during pubertal development. In the second half of the session, Kevin Sinchak (California State University, Long Beach, CA, USA) discussed how neuroprogesterone and progesterone receptor regulate the lutenizing hormone surge, John Meitzen (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA) gave a talk on how estradiol rapidly modulates excitatory synapse properties in the nucleus accumbens, and Karyn Frick (University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA) discussed ERβ activation as a potential treatment for alleviating menopausal symptoms, such as hot flashes. The second day ended with a third lightning round, with 4 short talks given by young investigators (Michael Saikali, University of Toronto; Dominik Awad, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center; Ashlie Santaliz Casiano, University of Illinois; and Cameron Leyers (Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, NC, USA), summarizing their poster presentations.

The last day of the conference was dedicated to novel roles of steroids and steroid receptors in neoplastic and other diseases. The morning session, “Novel functions of steroid receptors in cancer,” was chaired and moderated by Christy Hagan (University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA) and Stephen Hammes (University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA). The session was opened by Rosamaria Lappano (University of Calabria, Rende, Italy), who spoke about the role of the membrane receptor G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) in breast cancer, followed by Carol Lange (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA), who discussed signaling properties of progesterone receptor and glucocorticoid receptors in stemness, and Marina Holz (New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, USA), who presented new data on estrogen/mTOR crosstalk in lymphangioleiomyomatosis and breast cancer. These lectures were followed by Matt Sikora (University of Colorado, Anschutz, CO, USA) who shared recent progress on the role of ERs in the therapy response and resistance in lobular mammary carcinoma and by Scott Tomlins (Strata Oncology, Ann Arbor, MI, USA), who gave a talk on high-throughput -omics to identify driver mutations and gene fusions in cancer. The session also featured short talks from five young investigators, presenting data from their virtual posters (Anasuya Das Gupta, University of Illinois; Sarah El Kharraz, KU Leuven, Leuven, The Netherlands; Asmaa El-Kenawi, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, USA; Wanting Han, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, USA; and Thu Truong (University of Minnesota).

In the first afternoon session of day 3 of the conference, Donald DeFranco (University of Pittsburgh) and Ellis Levin (University of California, Irvine, CA, USA) moderated a series of lectures on new mechanisms and approaches of how to target steroid receptors. Elahe Mostaghel (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, WA, USA) discussed how prostate cancer and how adrenal androgens and AR axis inhibition may contribute to therapy resistance and serve as predictors of the therapeutic response. Douglas Kojetin (Scripps Research Florida, Jupiter, FL, USA) then presented evidence on how to use nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to visualize ligand-induced peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) repression. Edward Filardo (University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA) discussed dual specificity proteolysis-targeting chimeras (PROTACs) targeting GPER and ERs, and John Katzenellenbogen (University of Illinois) presented recent evidence from his laboratory demonstrating ERβ-mediated effects in response to very low affinity ER ligands. All talks were followed by questions from the online audience, with lively and engaging discussions moderated by the chairs.

The subsequent afternoon session, which concluded the conference, was chaired by Kristy Brown (Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA) and Subhamoy Dasgupta (Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center). The session focused on mechanisms of crosstalk between nuclear steroid receptors and metabolic pathways. Ian Mills (Queens University Belfast, Belfast, UK) discussed how androgens regulate metabolism in prostate cancer, and Rebecca Riggins (Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA) presented evidence for novel functions of ER-related receptor β (ERRβ) in the pathogenesis of glioblastoma. Giorgia Zadra (National Research Council of Italy) reported data on the modulation of intra-tumor lipid metabolism via androgen receptor. Erik Nelson (University of Illinois) then discussed how cholesterol, ER, and liver X receptors (LXRs) modulate the tumor microenvironment in breast cancer, and Philip Shaul (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center) closed the meeting presentations with data from his and other laboratories on endothelial ER signaling and its effects on cardiometabolic health and disease.

Despite the challenges imposed by COVID-19 and the virtual character of the conference, all sessions saw lively discussions and participation from the online audience. Results from the feedback evaluation were very positive regarding the organization of the meeting and the selection of topics. More than 90% of attendees who provided feedback gave favorable comments regarding the general sessions, poster sessions, and the scientific content of the conference. However, there were a few who noted issues with how quickly attendees could access desired on-demand content. Regardless, essentially all respondents of the feedback evaluation indicated that they plan to attend the next meeting, which will be held next year, and that they recommend attending this meeting to other researchers in the field. Many of the speakers and presenters have agreed to write a contribution on the topic of their talks for the conference proceedings, which, as for the last 20 years, 9 – 15 , 18 – 27 will be published in the journal Steroids as a Virtual Special Issue in 2022.

The organizers express their gratitude to FASEB and to the numerous sponsors of the meeting, which are listed in the Acknowledgments, especially the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) for providing funding to sponsor young investigator travel awards. These awards helped to recognize the contributions of students and postdoctoral trainees in the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in an increased attendance at the meeting by junior researchers. Indeed, with the support of NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Diseases, young investigator travel awards were awarded to every student or postdoc who expressed interest in attending the online conference. The next conference (in the form of the 13th International Meeting on Rapid Responses to Steroid Hormones, RRSH 2022) will be held in September 2022 in Paris, France, at the historic venue of the Sorbonne Université, which reaches back to the year 1257 and is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world. 28 The organizers hope to welcome scientists active in all fields of steroid hormone research and medicine in Paris next year.

Acknowledgments

The authors extend special thanks to FASEB for their assistance throughout the organization of this conference, especially Andrea Bauerfeind for her support with organizing the online conference. The authors also thank Silvy Song, their FASEB conference manager, for her hard work in ensuring a well-organized and smoothly run meeting, as well as Bahara Saleh, who was instrumental in coordinating the meeting’s sponsors and finances. A special thanks also to Paul Mermelstein, who helped to plan initial stages of the meeting. Finally, the authors thank their sponsors for their maintained support throughout the COVID19 pandemic, as well as the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Diseases (NIDDK) and National Cancer Institute (NCI) for providing generous support for the conference (R13 DK126171). This conference was supported by generous contributions from FASEB, Dr. Paul J. Davis (Pharmaceutical Research Institute at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Albany, NY, USA), the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champagne, IL, USA), the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque. NM, USA), Tulane University (New Orleans, LA, USA), AbbVie (Lake Bluff, IL, USA), Pfizer (New York, NY, USA), and the journals Science Signaling (American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC, USA), the Journal of Biological Chemistry (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Rockville, MD, USA), Steroids (Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands), the Journal of Neuroendocrinology (John Wiley& Sons, Hoboken, NJ, USA), and Endocrine-Related Cancer (Society for Endocrinology, North Bristol, UK). This conference was supported by grant R13 DK126171 from NIH/NIDDK and NCI. M. Barton is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants 108 258 and 122 504); D. E. Frigo is funded by NIH (grants R01CA184208 and P50CA14038s); Z. Madak-Erdogan is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture (grants ILLU-698-331 and ILLU-698-924); F. Mauvais-Jarvis is funded by NIH (grants DK107444 and DK074970) and a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Merit Award (BX003725); and E. R. Prossnitz is supported by NIH (grants R01 CA163890, R01 CA194496, P30 CA118100, P20 GM121176) and Dialysis Clinic, Inc. (Nashville, TN, USA; grant RF#C3937). The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by organizers, speakers, and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the NIH, nor does mention by trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Abbreviations

We use cookies to enhance our website for you. Proceed if you agree to this policy or learn more about it.

  • Essay Database >
  • Essays Examples >
  • Essay Topics

Essays on Steroids

10 samples on this topic

Writing a lot of Steroids papers is an essential part of present-day studying, be it in high-school, college, or university. If you can do that single-handedly, that's just awesome; yet, other students might not be that skilled, as Steroids writing can be quite laborious. The directory of free sample Steroids papers introduced below was set up in order to help struggling learners rise up to the challenge.

On the one hand, Steroids essays we publish here precisely demonstrate how a really exceptional academic paper should be developed. On the other hand, upon your request and for a reasonable cost, a pro essay helper with the relevant academic background can put together a high-quality paper model on Steroids from scratch.

Essay On An Steroids

Assignment Title

The World Is Flat (Thomas Friedman) Question & Answer

Introduction

Good Example Of Male Eating Disorders And Body Dysmorphia Literature Review

(Author, Department, University,

Corresponding Address and email)

Understanding Lupus Research Paper Examples

INTRODUCTION

Natural Bodybuilding And Steroids: Essay You Might Want To Emulate

Evaluation and management of respiratory disorders case study sample, a-level essay on asthma treatment and management for free use, performance enhancing drugs literature review examples, evidence-based review of pneumonia essay template for faster writing.

275 words = 1 page double-spaced

submit your paper

Password recovery email has been sent to [email protected]

Use your new password to log in

You are not register!

By clicking Register, you agree to our Terms of Service and that you have read our Privacy Policy .

Now you can download documents directly to your device!

Check your email! An email with your password has already been sent to you! Now you can download documents directly to your device.

or Use the QR code to Save this Paper to Your Phone

The sample is NOT original!

Short on a deadline?

Don't waste time. Get help with 11% off using code - GETWOWED

No, thanks! I'm fine with missing my deadline

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • View all journals
  • Explore content
  • About the journal
  • Publish with us
  • Sign up for alerts
  • 12 February 2024

China conducts first nationwide review of retractions and research misconduct

  • Smriti Mallapaty

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

You have full access to this article via your institution.

Technicians wearing full PPE work in a lab

The reputation of Chinese science has been "adversely affected" by the number of retractions in recent years, according to a government notice. Credit: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg/Getty

Chinese universities are days away from the deadline to complete a nationwide audit of retracted research papers and probe of research misconduct. By 15 February, universities must submit to the government a comprehensive list of all academic articles retracted from English- and Chinese-language journals in the past three years. They need to clarify why the papers were retracted and investigate cases involving misconduct, according to a 20 November notice from the Ministry of Education’s Department of Science, Technology and Informatization.

The government launched the nationwide self-review in response to Hindawi, a London-based subsidiary of the publisher Wiley, retracting a large number of papers by Chinese authors. These retractions, along with those from other publishers, “have adversely affected our country’s academic reputation and academic environment”, the notice states.

A Nature analysis shows that last year, Hindawi issued more than 9,600 retractions, of which the vast majority — about 8,200 — had a co-author in China. Nearly 14,000 retraction notices, of which some three-quarters involved a Chinese co-author, were issued by all publishers in 2023.

This is “the first time we’ve seen such a national operation on retraction investigations”, says Xiaotian Chen, a library and information scientist at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, who has studied retractions and research misconduct in China. Previous investigations have largely been carried out on a case-by-case basis — but this time, all institutions have to conduct their investigations simultaneously, says Chen.

Tight deadline

The ministry’s notice set off a chain of alerts, cascading to individual university departments. Bulletins posted on university websites required researchers to submit their retractions by a range of dates, mostly in January — leaving time for universities to collate and present the data.

Although the alerts included lists of retractions that the ministry or the universities were aware of, they also called for unlisted retractions to be added.

steroids essay research paper

More than 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023 — a new record

According to Nature ’s analysis, which includes only English-language journals, more than 17,000 retraction notices for papers published by Chinese co-authors have been issued since 1 January 2021, which is the start of the period of review specified in the notice. The analysis, an update of one conducted in December , used the Retraction Watch database, augmented with retraction notices collated from the Dimensions database, and involved assistance from Guillaume Cabanac, a computer scientist at the University of Toulouse in France. It is unclear whether the official lists contain the same number of retracted papers.

Regardless, the timing to submit the information will be tight, says Shu Fei, a bibliometrics scientist at Hangzhou Dianzi University in China. The ministry gave universities less than three months to complete their self-review — and this was cut shorter by the academic winter break, which typically starts in mid-January and concludes after the Chinese New Year, which fell this year on 10 February.

“The timing is not good,” he says. Shu expects that universities are most likely to submit only a preliminary report of their researchers’ retracted papers included on the official lists.

But Wang Fei, who studies research-integrity policy at Dalian University of Technology in China, says that because the ministry has set a deadline, universities will work hard to submit their findings on time.

Researchers with retracted papers will have to explain whether the retraction was owing to misconduct, such as image manipulation, or an honest mistake, such as authors identifying errors in their own work, says Chen: “In other words, they may have to defend themselves.” Universities then must investigate and penalize misconduct. If a researcher fails to declare their retracted paper and it is later uncovered, they will be punished, according to the ministry notice. The cost of not reporting is high, says Chen. “This is a very serious measure.”

It is not known what form punishment might take, but in 2021, China’s National Health Commission posted the results of its investigations into a batch of retracted papers. Punishments included salary cuts, withdrawal of bonuses, demotions and timed suspensions from applying for research grants and rewards.

The notice states explicitly that the first corresponding author of a paper is responsible for submitting the response. This requirement will largely address the problem of researchers shirking responsibility for collaborative work, says Li Tang, a science- and innovation-policy researcher at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. The notice also emphasizes due process, says Tang. Researchers alleged to have committed misconduct have a right to appeal during the investigation.

The notice is a good approach for addressing misconduct, says Wang. Previous efforts by the Chinese government have stopped at issuing new research-integrity guidelines that were poorly implemented, she says. And when government bodies did launch self-investigations of published literature, they were narrower in scope and lacked clear objectives. This time, the target is clear — retractions — and the scope is broad, involving the entire university research community, she says.

“Cultivating research integrity takes time, but China is on the right track,” says Tang.

It is not clear what the ministry will do with the flurry of submissions. Wang says that, because the retraction notices are already freely available, publicizing the collated lists and underlying reasons for retraction could be useful. She hopes that a similar review will be conducted every year “to put more pressure” on authors and universities to monitor research integrity.

What happens next will reveal how seriously the ministry regards research misconduct, says Shu. He suggests that, if the ministry does not take further action after the Chinese New Year, the notice could be an attempt to respond to the reputational damage caused by the mass retractions last year.

The ministry did not respond to Nature ’s questions about the misconduct investigation.

Chen says that, regardless of what the ministry does with the information, the reporting process itself will help to curb misconduct because it is “embarrassing to the people in the report”.

But it might primarily affect researchers publishing in English-language journals. Retraction notices in Chinese-language journals are rare.

Nature 626 , 700-701 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00397-x

Data analysis by Richard Van Noorden.

Reprints and permissions

Related Articles

steroids essay research paper

  • Scientific community
  • Research management

What’s the sign for ‘centrifuge’? How we added scientific terms to Indian Sign Language

What’s the sign for ‘centrifuge’? How we added scientific terms to Indian Sign Language

Career Feature 23 FEB 24

‘All of Us’ genetics chart stirs unease over controversial depiction of race

‘All of Us’ genetics chart stirs unease over controversial depiction of race

News 23 FEB 24

How to boost your research: take a sabbatical in policy

How to boost your research: take a sabbatical in policy

World View 21 FEB 24

Could roving researchers help address the challenge of taking parental leave?

Could roving researchers help address the challenge of taking parental leave?

Career Feature 07 FEB 24

Best practice for LGBTQ+ data collection by STEM organizations

Correspondence 06 FEB 24

Open science — embrace it before it’s too late

Open science — embrace it before it’s too late

Editorial 06 FEB 24

Open-access publishing: citation advantage is unproven

Correspondence 13 FEB 24

How journals are fighting back against a wave of questionable images

How journals are fighting back against a wave of questionable images

News Explainer 12 FEB 24

Postdoctoral Fellow

A Postdoctoral Fellow position is immediately available in the laboratory of Dr. Fen-Biao Gao at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical Schoo...

Worcester, Massachusetts (US)

Umass Chan Medical School - Fen-Biao Gao Lab

steroids essay research paper

Washing, Sterilisation and Media Preparation Technician

APPLICATION CLOSING DATE: March 7th, 2024 About Human Technopole:  Human Technopole (HT) is an interdisciplinary life science research institute, c...

Human Technopole

steroids essay research paper

Scientific Officer

ABOUT US The Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSPO) is a unique organization, supporting international collaboration to undertake inno...

Strasbourg-Ville, Bas-Rhin (FR)

HUMAN FRONTIER SCIENCE PROGRAM ORGANIZATION

steroids essay research paper

Tenure Track Assistant Professor towards Associate Professor in the field of biomedical sciences

UNIL is a leading international teaching and research institution, with over 5,000 employees and 17,000 students split between its Dorigny campus, ...

Lausanne, Canton of Vaud (CH)

University of Lausanne (UNIL)

steroids essay research paper

Faculty Positions at City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan)

CityU (Dongguan) warmly invites individuals from diverse backgrounds to apply for various faculty positions available at the levels of Professor...

Dongguan, Guangdong, China

City University of Hong Kong (Dongguan)

steroids essay research paper

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

  • Explore articles by subject
  • Guide to authors
  • Editorial policies

steroids essay research paper

Customer Reviews

Help | Advanced Search

Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence

Title: an interactive agent foundation model.

Abstract: The development of artificial intelligence systems is transitioning from creating static, task-specific models to dynamic, agent-based systems capable of performing well in a wide range of applications. We propose an Interactive Agent Foundation Model that uses a novel multi-task agent training paradigm for training AI agents across a wide range of domains, datasets, and tasks. Our training paradigm unifies diverse pre-training strategies, including visual masked auto-encoders, language modeling, and next-action prediction, enabling a versatile and adaptable AI framework. We demonstrate the performance of our framework across three separate domains -- Robotics, Gaming AI, and Healthcare. Our model demonstrates its ability to generate meaningful and contextually relevant outputs in each area. The strength of our approach lies in its generality, leveraging a variety of data sources such as robotics sequences, gameplay data, large-scale video datasets, and textual information for effective multimodal and multi-task learning. Our approach provides a promising avenue for developing generalist, action-taking, multimodal systems.

Submission history

Access paper:.

  • Download PDF
  • Other Formats

license icon

References & Citations

  • Google Scholar
  • Semantic Scholar

BibTeX formatted citation

BibSonomy logo

Bibliographic and Citation Tools

Code, data and media associated with this article, recommenders and search tools.

  • Institution

arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators

arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.

Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.

Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs .

AI Writes Scientific Papers That Sound Great—but Aren’t Accurate

Logo Photo Illustration

F irst came the students, who wanted help with their homework and essays. Now, ChatGPT is luring scientists, who are under pressure to publish papers in reputable scientific journals.

AI is already disrupting the archaic world of scientific publishing. When Melissa Kacena, vice chair of orthopaedic surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine, reviews articles submitted for publication in journals, she now knows to look out for ones that might have been written by the AI program. “I have a rule of thumb now that if I pull up 10 random references cited in the paper, and if more than one isn’t accurate, then I reject the paper,” she says.

But despite the pitfalls, there is also promise. Writing review articles, for example, is a task well suited to AI: it involves sifting through the existing research on a subject, analyzing the results, reaching a conclusion about the state of the science on the topic, and providing some new insight. ChatGPT can do all of those things well.

Kacena decided to see who is better at writing review articles: people or ChatGPT. For her study published in Current Osteoporosis Reports , she sorted nine students and the AI program into three groups and asked each group to write a review article on a different topic. For one group, she asked the students to write review articles on the topics; for another, she instructed ChatGPT to write articles on the same topics; and for the last group, she gave each of the students their own ChatGPT account and told them to work together with the AI program to write articles. That allowed her to compare articles written by people, by AI, and a combination of people and AI. She asked faculty member colleagues and the students to fact check each of the articles, and compared the three types of articles on measures like accuracy, ease of reading, and use of appropriate language.

Read More : To Make a Real Difference in Health Care, AI Will Need to Learn Like We Do

The results were eye-opening. The articles written by ChatGPT were easy to read and were even better written than the students'. But up to 70% of the cited references were inaccurate: they were either incoherently merged from several different studies or completely fictitious. The AI versions were also more likely to be plagiarized.

“ChatGPT was pretty convincing with some of the phony statements it made, to be honest,” says Kacena. “It used the proper syntax and integrated them with proper statements in a paragraph, so sometimes there were no warning bells. It was only because the faculty members had a good understanding of the data, or because the students fact checked everything, that they were detected.”

There were some advantages to the AI-generated articles. The algorithm was faster and more efficient in processing all the required data, and in general, ChatGPT used better grammar than the students. But it couldn't always read the room: AI tended to use more flowery language that wasn’t always appropriate for scientific journals (unless the students had told ChatGPT to write it from the perspective of a graduate-level science student.)

Read More : The 100 Most Influential People in AI

That reflects a truth about the use of AI: it's only as good as the information it receives. While ChatGPT isn’t quite ready to author scientific journal articles, with the proper programming and training, it could improve and become a useful tool for researchers. “Right now it’s not great by itself, but it can be made to work,” says Kacena. For example, if queried, the algorithm was good at recommending ways to summarize data in figures and graphical depictions. “The advice it gave on those were spot on, and exactly what I would have done,” she says.

The more feedback the students provided on ChatGPT's work, the better it learned—and that represents its greatest promise. In the study, some students found that when they worked together with ChatGPT to write the article, the program continued to improve and provide better results if they told it what things it was doing right, and what was less helpful. That means that addressing problems like questionable references and plagiarism could potentially be fixed. ChatGPT could be programmed, for example, to not merge references and to treat each scientific journal article as its own separate reference, and to limit copying consecutive words to avoid plagiarism.

With more input and some fixes, Kacena believes that AI could help researchers smooth out the writing process and even gain scientific insights. "I think ChatGPT is here to stay, and figuring out how to make it better, and how to use it in an ethical and conscientious and scientifically sound manner, is going to be really important,” she says.

More Must-Reads From TIME

  • Meet the 2024 Women of the Year
  • Greta Gerwig's Next Big Swing 
  • East Palestine, One Year After Train Derailment
  • In the Belly of MrBeast
  • The Closers: 18 People Working to End the Racial Wealth Gap
  • How Long Should You Isolate With COVID-19?
  • The Best Romantic Comedies to Watch on Netflix
  • Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

You May Also Like

A once-ignored community of science sleuths now has the research community on its heels

steroids essay research paper

A community of sleuths hunting for errors in scientific research have sent shockwaves through some of the most prestigious research institutions in the world — and the science community at large.

High-profile cases of alleged image manipulations in papers authored by the former president at Stanford University and leaders at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have made national media headlines, and some top science leaders think this could be just the start.

“At the rate things are going, we expect another one of these to come up every few weeks,” said Holden Thorp, the editor-in-chief of the Science family of scientific journals, whose namesake publication is one of the two most influential in the field. 

The sleuths argue their work is necessary to correct the scientific record and prevent generations of researchers from pursuing dead-end topics because of flawed papers. And some scientists say it’s time for universities and academic publishers to reform how they address flawed research. 

“I understand why the sleuths finding these things are so pissed off,” said Michael Eisen, a biologist, the former editor of the journal eLife and a prominent voice of reform in scientific publishing. “Everybody — the author, the journal, the institution, everybody — is incentivized to minimize the importance of these things.” 

For about a decade, science sleuths unearthed widespread problems in scientific images in published papers, publishing concerns online but receiving little attention. 

That began to change last summer after then-Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne, who is a neuroscientist, stepped down from his post after scrutiny of alleged image manipulations in studies he helped author and a report criticizing his laboratory culture. Tessier-Lavigne was not found to have engaged in misconduct himself, but members of his lab appeared to manipulate images in dubious ways, a report from a scientific panel hired to examine the allegations said. 

In January, a scathing post from a blogger exposed questionable work from top leaders at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute , which subsequently asked journals to retract six articles and issue corrections for dozens more. 

In a resignation statement , Tessier-Lavigne noted that the panel did not find that he knew of misconduct and that he never submitted papers he didn’t think were accurate. In a statement from its research integrity officer, Dana-Farber said it took decisive action to correct the scientific record and that image discrepancies were not necessarily evidence an author sought to deceive. 

“We’re certainly living through a moment — a public awareness — that really hit an inflection when the Marc Tessier-Lavigne matter happened and has continued steadily since then, with Dana-Farber being the latest,” Thorp said. 

Now, the long-standing problem is in the national spotlight, and new artificial intelligence tools are only making it easier to spot problems that range from decades-old errors and sloppy science to images enhanced unethically in photo-editing software.  

This heightened scrutiny is reshaping how some publishers are operating. And it’s pushing universities, journals and researchers to reckon with new technology, a potential backlog of undiscovered errors and how to be more transparent when problems are identified. 

This comes at a fraught time in academic halls. Bill Ackman, a venture capitalist, in a post on X last month discussed weaponizing artificial intelligence to identify plagiarism of leaders at top-flight universities where he has had ideological differences, raising questions about political motivations in plagiarism investigations. More broadly, public trust in scientists and science has declined steadily in recent years, according to the Pew Research Center .

Eisen said he didn’t think sleuths’ concerns over scientific images had veered into “McCarthyist” territory.

“I think they’ve been targeting a very specific type of problem in the literature, and they’re right — it’s bad,” Eisen said. 

Scientific publishing builds the base of what scientists understand about their disciplines, and it’s the primary way that researchers with new findings outline their work for colleagues. Before publication, scientific journals consider submissions and send them to outside researchers in the field for vetting and to spot errors or faulty reasoning, which is called peer review. Journal editors will review studies for plagiarism and for copy edits before they’re published. 

That system is not perfect and still relies on good-faith efforts by researchers to not manipulate their findings.

Over the past 15 years, scientists have grown increasingly concerned about problems that some researchers were digitally altering images in their papers to skew or emphasize results. Discovering irregularities in images — typically of experiments involving mice, gels or blots — has become a larger priority of scientific journals’ work.   

Jana Christopher, an expert on scientific images who works for the Federation of European Biochemical Societies and its journals, said the field of image integrity screening has grown rapidly since she began working in it about 15 years ago. 

At the time, “nobody was doing this and people were kind of in denial about research fraud,” Christopher said. “The common view was that it was very rare and every now and then you would find someone who fudged their results.” 

Today, scientific journals have entire teams dedicated to dealing with images and trying to ensure their accuracy. More papers are being retracted than ever — with a record 10,000-plus pulled last year, according to a Nature analysis . 

A loose group of scientific sleuths have added outside pressure. Sleuths often discover and flag errors or potential manipulations on the online forum PubPeer. Some sleuths receive little or no payment or public recognition for their work.

“To some extent, there is a vigilantism around it,” Eisen said. 

An analysis of comments on more than 24,000 articles posted on PubPeer found that more than 62% of comments on PubPeer were related to image manipulation. 

For years, sleuths relied on sharp eyes, keen pattern recognition and an understanding of photo manipulation tools. In the past few years, rapidly developing artificial intelligence tools, which can scan papers for irregularities, are supercharging their work. 

Now, scientific journals are adopting similar technology to try to prevent errors from reaching publication. In January, Science announced that it was using an artificial intelligence tool called Proofig to scan papers that were being edited and peer-reviewed for publication. 

Thorp, the Science editor-in-chief, said the family of six journals added the tool “quietly” into its workflow about six months before that January announcement. Before, the journal was reliant on eye-checks to catch these types of problems. 

Thorp said Proofig identified several papers late in the editorial process that were not published because of problematic images that were difficult to explain and other instances in which authors had “logical explanations” for issues they corrected before publication.

“The serious errors that cause us not to publish a paper are less than 1%,” Thorp said.

In a statement, Chris Graf, the research integrity director at the publishing company Springer Nature, said his company is developing and testing “in-house AI image integrity software” to check for image duplications. Graf’s research integrity unit currently uses Proofig to help assess articles if concerns are raised after publication. 

Graf said processes varied across its journals, but that some Springer Nature publications manually check images for manipulations with Adobe Photoshop tools and look for inconsistencies in raw data for experiments that visualize cell components or common scientific experiments.

“While the AI-based tools are helpful in speeding up and scaling up the investigations, we still consider the human element of all our investigations to be crucial,” Graf said, adding that image recognition software is not perfect and that human expertise is required to protect against false positives and negatives. 

No tool will catch every mistake or cheat. 

“There’s a lot of human beings in that process. We’re never going to catch everything,” Thorp said. “We need to get much better at managing this when it happens, as journals, institutions and authors.”

Many science sleuths had grown frustrated after their concerns seemed to be ignored or as investigations trickled along slowly and without a public resolution.  

Sholto David, who publicly exposed concerns about Dana-Farber research in a blog post, said he largely “gave up” on writing letters to journal editors about errors he discovered because their responses were so insufficient. 

Elisabeth Bik, a microbiologist and longtime image sleuth, said she has frequently flagged image problems and “nothing happens.” 

Leaving public comments questioning research figures on PubPeer can start a public conversation over questionable research, but authors and research institutions often don’t respond directly to the online critiques. 

While journals can issue corrections or retractions, it’s typically a research institution’s or a university’s responsibility to investigate cases. When cases involve biomedical research supported by federal funding, the federal Office of Research Integrity can investigate. 

Thorp said the institutions need to move more swiftly to take responsibility when errors are discovered and speak plainly and publicly about what happened to earn the public’s trust.  

“Universities are so slow at responding and so slow at running through their processes, and the longer that goes on, the more damage that goes on,” Thorp said. “We don’t know what happened if instead of launching this investigation Stanford said, ‘These papers are wrong. We’re going to retract them. It’s our responsibility. But for now, we’re taking the blame and owning up to this.’” 

Some scientists worry that image concerns are only scratching the surface of science’s integrity issues — problems in images are simply much easier to spot than data errors in spreadsheets. 

And while policing bad papers and seeking accountability is important, some scientists think those measures will be treating symptoms of the larger problem: a culture that rewards the careers of those who publish the most exciting results, rather than the ones that hold up over time. 

“The scientific culture itself does not say we care about being right; it says we care about getting splashy papers,” Eisen said. 

Evan Bush is a science reporter for NBC News. He can be reached at [email protected].

IMAGES

  1. ≫ The Effect of Steroids on Our Health and Sleep Free Essay Sample on

    steroids essay research paper

  2. ⇉Steroids In Sports Essay Essay Example

    steroids essay research paper

  3. 👍 Paper steroids. FREE Steroids in Sports Essay. 2019-01-11

    steroids essay research paper

  4. Research Paper

    steroids essay research paper

  5. Bodybuilding and The Use of Steroids Research Paper

    steroids essay research paper

  6. Steroids Essay.doc

    steroids essay research paper

VIDEO

  1. Argumentative Essay Research A

  2. Argumentative Essay Research, Fall 2023

  3. Biosynthesis of steroids hormone in Hindi Notes for msc Zoology

  4. Determine the structure of a specific academic text

  5. Essay, term paper and research papers writing services by PoweredEssays.com

  6. PCT vs NO PCT

COMMENTS

  1. Steroids: Pharmacology, Complications, and Practice Delivery Issues

    Clinically relevant side effects of steroids are common and problematic. Side effects can occur at a wide range of doses and vary depending on the route of administration. The full spectrum of side effects can be present even in patients taking low doses. Conclusions

  2. Steroids Essays: Examples, Topics, & Outlines

    This paper highlights the introduction of steroids i.e. its basic function. It also explains the multiple uses of steroids by people from different fields of profession. Normal perception of people is that it is used by athletes and sportsmen as a drug but there are other uses discussed in the paper as well.

  3. The science of steroids

    Steroids are complex lipophilic molecules that have many actions in the body to regulate cellular, tissue and organ functions across the life-span. Steroid hormones such as cortisol, aldosterone, estradiol and testosterone are synthesised from cholesterol in specialised endocrine cells in the adrena …

  4. Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Use in Sports, Health, and Society

    SDC Abstract This consensus statement is an update of the 1987 American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) position stand on the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS). Substantial data have been collected since the previous position stand, and AAS use patterns have changed significantly.

  5. Medical Issues Associated with Anabolic Steroid Use: Are They

    Anabolic-androgenic steroids (herein referred to as only anabolic steroids) are the man-made derivatives of the male sex hormone testosterone. Physiologically, elevations in testosterone concentrations stimulate protein synthesis resulting in improvements in muscle size, body mass and strength (Bhasin et al., 1996; 2001 ).

  6. Adverse Effects of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids: A Literature Review

    Abstract. Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AASs) are a large group of molecules including endogenously produced androgens, such as testosterone, as well as synthetically manufactured derivatives. AAS use is widespread due to their ability to improve muscle growth for aesthetic purposes and athletes' performance, minimizing androgenic effects.

  7. Steroid use and human performance: Lessons for integrative biologists

    The topic of steroid effects on human athletic performance is germane to an emerging field of research investigating hormonal effects on animals' performance (e.g., sprint speed, endurance capacity, bite-force capacity) (Husak et al. 2009a), as testosterone may exert general effects on performance across widely divergent vertebrate taxa. Our ...

  8. Anabolic Steroids Essays (Examples)

    This paper is review of the article "Medical Issue Associated with Anabolic Steroid Use: are they exaggerated?" The review deals with the medical issues related to the use of anabolic steroids by athletes and bodybuilders.

  9. Steroids Research Paper

    8 Pages Open Document The purpose of this essay is to express that steroids have several negative effects. This essay will also include the right that the trained sports industry needs to exclude steroid use and form a great illustration for younger athletes.

  10. Steroids Research Paper

    Steroids can harm a full grown adult's body, and the effects are only amplified in teenagers. Anabolic steroids can have long-lasing and sometimes irreversible effects on the body. They have been linked to high cholesterol, blood clots, strokes, and musculoskeletal problems. Since steroids are a hormone like testosterone, the effects can ...

  11. Steroids and Sports Essay

    Steroids In Sports. the competitive edge over their opponents. Then they turn to drugs to get the edge. Steroids are the most common drug for athletes to take. It increases muscle mass, body weight etc. Athletes also take androstenedione, creatine, anabolic steroids and ephedra alkaloids. 2.5-5% of adolescents are using these drugs.

  12. ≡Essays on Steroids in Sports. Free Examples of Research Paper Topics

    4 pages / 1704 words. Steroids and HGH Steroid use in medicine and sports has heavily increased since steroids were first invented. "The history of anabolic steroids can be traced back to as early as 1930's, before the term steroid was even used. In the 1930's, a team of scientists... Medical Ethics Steroids in Sports.

  13. Sample research paper about steroids

    Sample research paper about steroids Drugs generally referred to as 'steroids' can be categorized as anabolic and corticosteroids. Corticosteroids are drugs prescribed by the doctors to help managing inflammation in the human body and mostly used in conditions such as lupus and asthma.

  14. Steroids Research Paper

    Steroids, first created in the 1930s, are synthetic hormones that produce specific physiological effects on one's body (Center for Substance Abuse Research). Although the German scientists who discovered steroids did not intend its use for body building or creating better athletes, steroid use has developed into a controversial subject ...

  15. Anabolic Steroids and Sports: [Essay Example], 723 words

    The severity depends on which steroid or combination of steroids that are being abused. The brain, the skin, and the liver are three main parts of the body that get abused by shooting steroids. In 1994, recreational bodybuilders attending a Welsh needle-exchange clinic completed a survey on feelings of hostility/aggression.

  16. Genomic data in the All of Us Research Program

    To accelerate health research, All of Us is committed to curating and releasing research data early and often 6.Less than five years after national enrolment began in 2018, this fifth data release ...

  17. Steroid Hormones and Receptors in Health and Disease

    Steroid hormone effects have been reported for almost 140 years 1 - 3. Research over the past 50 years has led to the discovery of steroid hormone receptors that act via both genomic and nongenomic ("rapid") mechanisms. Steroids are involved in physiology and disease, mediating endocrine, cardiovascular, and reproductive functions and ...

  18. PDF Strategies for Essay Writing

    In a short paper—even a research paper—you don't need to provide an exhaustive summary as part of your conclusion. But you do need to make some kind of transition between your final body paragraph and your concluding paragraph. This may come in the form of a few sentences of summary. Or it may come in the form of a sentence that

  19. Steroids In Sports Research Paper

    Steroids In Sports Research Paper. 1410 Words6 Pages. Drugs are a big issue in the sports industry. Many athletes will take performance-enhancing drugs, such as steroids, to help them play better. These types of drugs should not be allowed because it gives the player a greater advantage over other players who are playing with their natural ability.

  20. Steroids Essay Examples

    Get your free examples of research papers and essays on Steroids here. Only the A-papers by top-of-the-class students. Learn from the best! ... a pro essay helper with the relevant academic background can put together a high-quality paper model on Steroids from scratch. Essay On An Steroids. Assignment Title. Logical Forms Logical form 1: No As ...

  21. Steroids Research Paper

    Steroids Research Paper Decent Essays 2578 Words 11 Pages Open Document Anderson Page 1 of 8 Robert Anderson Prof. Santoro English Comp 1 sec 151 Research Paper April 29, 2008 Anabolic Steroid Anabolic steroid is widely being used by young teens throughout middle school and high school.

  22. Steroids Research Paper

    Steroids Research Paper; Steroids Research Paper. Improved Essays. 857 Words; 4 Pages; Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Steroids first came onto the scene sometime around the 1930's. Originally they were tested on dogs, and the progressively began to get tested on World War II soldiers. ... Persuasive Essay On ...

  23. China conducts first nationwide review of retractions and research

    More than 10,000 research papers were retracted in 2023 — a new record. ... China's research-misconduct rules target 'paper mills' that churn out fake studies Subjects. Scientific ...

  24. Steroids Essay Research Paper

    Steroids Essay Research Paper, Custom Cover Letter Proofreading Services Gb, Essay On Horizons Of Soil, Essay To Get Into College, Cover Letter Physics Postdoc Sample, Fight Club Book Report, La Morte Amoureuse Resume Court 100% Success rate ...

  25. [2402.05929] An Interactive Agent Foundation Model

    The development of artificial intelligence systems is transitioning from creating static, task-specific models to dynamic, agent-based systems capable of performing well in a wide range of applications. We propose an Interactive Agent Foundation Model that uses a novel multi-task agent training paradigm for training AI agents across a wide range of domains, datasets, and tasks. Our training ...

  26. Steroids In Sport Research Paper

    Steroids In Sport Research Paper. 475 Words 2 Pages. From the beginning of history, professional and amateur athletes have tempted to use legal or illegal drugs to enhance their performance (1). Athletes have used pharmacological agents, called Performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), to enhance performance or to become leaner or more muscular (2).

  27. AI Writes Scientific Papers That Sound Great—But Aren't Accurate

    Writing review articles, for example, is a task well suited to AI: it involves sifting through the existing research on a subject, analyzing the results, reaching a conclusion about the state of ...

  28. A once-ignored community of science sleuths now has the research

    A community of sleuths hunting for errors in scientific research have sent shockwaves through some of the most prestigious research institutions in the world — and the science community at large.

  29. Steroid Research Paper

    Doping-administer drugs to a racehorse, greyhound, or athlete in order to inhibit or enhance sporting performance.Charles Edwards Brown invented the first ever dose of steroids.Charles Edward used chemicals,and his own sperm.Scientists still question why and how he did it,Edward Charles at the time he was 70 and he said "it made me feel 50 years...