Exercises: Hormonal Manipulation in Sport, Health and Agriculture

Name the hormone injected by people with type 1 diabetes and state the gland that normally produces it. State the effect of the hormone on blood glucose.

Anabolic steroids are banned in sport. State what they are similar to in the body and name two effects they have on muscle and on the body.

Name one hormone used in agriculture in some countries to increase milk production in cattle or to synchronise oestrus in cows, and state one reason a farmer would want to do this.

An athlete uses synthetic erythropoietin (EPO).

1. a) State the normal source and function of EPO.

1. b) Explain how EPO improves endurance performance.

1. c) Explain one health risk of the resulting rise in red blood cell count.

Anabolic steroid use has the following effects on a male: reduced sperm production, shrinking testes and mood swings.

1. a) Explain, using negative feedback, why testes shrink and sperm production falls.

1. b) Name the two pituitary hormones whose secretion is reduced.

1. c) Explain why testing for steroids is difficult but regularly done in Irish sport.

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is used by some women around menopause.

1. a) Explain why the symptoms of menopause occur.

1. b) Name the hormones usually supplied in HRT.

1. c) State one benefit and one risk of HRT.

Within the European Union, the use of growth-promoting hormones in beef cattle is banned.

1. a) Explain how hormones could increase muscle growth in cattle.

1. b) Discuss the arguments for and against the ban in terms of consumer health, animal welfare, farm profit and trade.

1. c) Suggest, with reasons, how Irish farmers can improve productivity without hormones.

A farmer uses a progesterone-releasing intravaginal device in dairy cows, followed by an injection of prostaglandin, to synchronise breeding.

1. a) Explain how the progesterone device controls the oestrous cycle through feedback on the pituitary.

1. b) Explain why prostaglandin is used to cause regression of the corpus luteum.

1. c) Evaluate the economic and ethical aspects of synchronisation for a spring-calving herd.

Human growth hormone (hGH) is used to treat children with growth hormone deficiency but is also misused by athletes. Before genetic engineering, it was extracted from cadaver pituitaries.

1. a) Explain how recombinant DNA technology allows safe production of hGH.

1. b) Explain why the earlier source carried risks.

1. c) Discuss the ethical issues of using hormones to enhance performance in sport and of using hormones for non-medical height increases.