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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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3 0 - 0 3 - 2 0 0 5 The Growth Factor Myostatin, a Key Regulator in Skeletal Muscle Growth and Homeostasis
A. Matsakas, P. Diel.
Recently, it was shown that inhibitors of metalloproteases increase the fusion of C2C12 myoblasts and provoke myotube hypertrophy. The lack of myostatin processing on hydroxamate-based inhibitors of metalloproteases treatment was identified as a mediator of myotube hypertrophy.
Recently, Wolfman et al. reported that members of the bone morphogenetic protein-1/tolloid (BMP-1/TLD) family of metalloproteinases can cleave the myostatin propeptide in this complex and can thereby activate latent myostatin. These findings raise the possibility that members of the BMP-1/TLD family may be involved in activating latent myostatin in vivo and that molecules capable of inhibiting these proteinases may be effective agents for increasing muscle mass for both human therapeutic and agricultural applications.
Thus, it can be feared that myostatin inhibitors - also those which are currently developed by pharmaceutical companies - will be misused by athletes in order to improve both muscle mass and muscle/fat ratio. Moreover, there is theoretically the possibility that some pharmaceutical products, originally developed for other indications, may also possess the ability to modulate the myostatin pathway and therefore can be misused for doping.
Metalloprotease inhibitors like Marimastat or Batimastat, which have been developed for the treatment of cancer disease may also have the potency to affect myostatin processing. In principle, there is the possibility that some people have already started to experiment with such drugs to enhance their physical performance, taking incalculable risks for their health. Summarising all these facts, there is accumulating evidence that screening systems detecting manipulations of myostatin signalling pathway will become a big challenge in the fight against doping in the near future.
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