BPC-157 at a glance
BPC-157 is short for Body Protection Compound 157. Chemically it is a pentadecapeptide: 15 amino acids in the order Gly-Glu-Pro-Pro-Pro-Gly-Lys-Pro-Ala-Asp-Asp-Ala-Gly-Leu-Val, always made by synthesis. The sequence is said to be one stretch of BPC, a larger protein that Predrag Sikirić and colleagues in Zagreb say they isolated from human gastric juice; the report dates from the early 1990s. Hardly anyone else has characterised that parent protein, so even the origin story rests on one source.
It fits no established drug class. Reference lists file it with the repair peptides, beside TB-500 and GHK-Cu, because of the injury models it has been tested in, not because of a shared mechanism.
- Synthetic peptide of 15 residues, 1419.5 Da, with no receptor identified.
- The evidence is rat work, most of it from one laboratory in Zagreb.
- No randomised controlled trial in people has been published.
- Named in class S0 of the WADA Prohibited List from 2022 onwards.
How BPC-157 works
In a pharmacologist’s sense the mechanism is unknown. No receptor has been found, so there is no binding data and no traced route from a first molecular contact to a repaired tendon. The literature offers associations from animal tissue and cell culture instead.
Three recur. Treated tissue shows more vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and activation of its receptor VEGFR2, the pair that drives new blood-vessel growth. Nitric oxide signalling, a regulator of blood flow and vessel repair, is affected as well. Cultured tendon fibroblasts migrated faster, an effect tied to the FAK–paxillin pathway, and expressed more growth hormone receptor. Each link is plausible; none has been shown to cause the healing reported in rats.
The Zagreb group reports that BPC-157 survives gastric juice, which is why many rat experiments put it in the drinking water or straight into the stomach as well as giving injections. The sources behind this page give no half-life.
The evidence ladder for BPC-157
| Evidence level | Model or trial | Main finding |
|---|---|---|
| Cell culture | Tendon fibroblasts, notably work from Taiwan | Quicker migration linked to FAK–paxillin; more growth hormone receptor |
| Animal study (Zagreb) | Rats with stomach ulcers, bowel anastomoses and fistulas, severed tendons and ligaments, crushed muscle, or organ injury caused by drugs | Healing reported as better than in saline controls |
| Animal study (other laboratories) | A small number of cell and animal experiments | Same direction; too few to call a broad replication |
| Human, uncontrolled | A few small reports, one of them a retrospective knee-pain case series | No comparison group, so no conclusion about effect |
| Randomised trial | None published | – |
| Licensed use | None | Not approved by any medicines regulator |
This is a ladder with one crowded rung. The rat work is large in volume and consistent in direction, but volume is not breadth: many results from one laboratory weigh less than the same result from several laboratories with no ties to each other, and that kind of confirmation is still scarce.
Group sizes are often small, and randomisation and blinding are not always reported. The list of responsive tissues is unusually long for one small peptide: tendon, ligament, muscle, bone, gut, liver, blood vessels and the nervous system. None of it shows that BPC-157 repairs human tissue, in what amount, or with which side effects.
BPC-157 doses reported in studies
The figures below are reference values from published rat experiments. They record what the experimenters did and are not guidance for any use in people.
| Setting | Dose | Route | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rat injury models | 10 µg/kg | Intraperitoneal injection | The most common dose in the Zagreb papers |
| Rat injury models | 10 ng/kg | Intraperitoneal injection | Often run in parallel with the microgram dose |
| Rat, oral route | 10 µg/kg or 10 ng/kg | Dissolved in the drinking water | Relies on the reported stability in gastric juice |
| Human | None validated | – | No controlled trial exists to set one |
Scaling either rat figure to another species, by body weight or by a conversion formula, would be guesswork: the rat data define no dose–response curve, and no controlled human study exists to anchor them.
Safety findings and open questions
The rat papers record few adverse effects, but the experiments were set up to measure healing, not harm. For people there are no controlled safety data at all, so neither the kind nor the frequency of side effects is known. Pharmaceutical-grade BPC-157 does not exist either: the lot certificate is the only record of what a vial contains.
- Tumours need new blood vessels, and BPC-157 appears to promote vessel growth partly through VEGF signalling. Could it support an existing tumour? Not demonstrated, and not properly tested.
- What does repeated exposure over months do? Little is known in any species.
- Is the peptide absorbed by mouth in humans? The drinking-water design has only been run in rats.
- Will laboratories with no link to Zagreb reproduce the central findings? So far that work is limited.
Bench notes: storing and reconstituting BPC-157
The material arrives as a lyophilised (freeze-dried) powder, and the data panel on this page gives −20 °C as its storage temperature. Keep the vial sealed and dry, and let it warm to room temperature before opening so that moisture does not condense on the cold powder.
Bacteriostatic water is the usual solvent in research settings, since its preservative allows more than one withdrawal from the same vial. Run the water slowly down the glass wall and swirl; vigorous shaking can damage a peptide. A solution keeps far less well than the dry powder, so refrigerate it, label it with lot number and date, and work from aliquots to avoid repeated freezing and thawing. The full protocol is in Storage and Reconstitution: A Bench Protocol.
Status in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg
Marketing authorisations for medicines in the EU run through the European Medicines Agency and hold equally in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. BPC-157 has none, in the EU or from any regulator elsewhere. Research material is sold without a marketing authorisation and is not meant for human use. National and institutional rules on possession and import differ, so check the ones that apply to your laboratory.
Since 2022 the World Anti-Doping Agency has named BPC-157 on its Prohibited List in class S0, which covers substances that no governmental health authority has approved for therapeutic use in humans. Everything in S0 is prohibited at all times, in competition and outside it.
Ordering BPC-157 for research in the Benelux
King Peptides lists BPC-157 10 mg as a single compound. The peptide is also an ingredient of two blends: Wolverine Stack - BPC-157 + TB-500 5/5 mg, and KLOW-80 Blend - GHK-Cu + BPC-157 + TB-500 + KPV. Work that must attribute an outcome to BPC-157 needs the single compound. Peptide Combinations: What Is Studied Together and Why explains the pairings and the evidence they lack.
The shop issues a lot-specific certificate of analysis (CoA) with HPLC and mass spectrometry for every lot. For this molecule look for three things: a lot number identical to the one on the vial label, an HPLC purity of 99% or higher, and a measured mass close to 1419.5 Da. A blend certificate should give a separate mass for each ingredient. Checking a Certificate of Analysis, Line by Line covers the rest.
Orders are dispatched from the Netherlands in a tracked parcel. Delivery usually takes 1–2 business days within the Netherlands and 3–5 business days to Belgium and Luxembourg, with no customs clearance because the parcel stays inside the EU. A wider supplier checklist is in Buying Research Peptides in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
BPC-157: quick answers
Has BPC-157 been through a clinical trial? No randomised controlled trial has been published. The Zagreb group has referred to early tests in inflammatory bowel disease, yet a full peer-reviewed trial report has not appeared. What remains is a handful of small uncontrolled reports.
Why does nearly all the literature come from one city? The peptide was first described in Zagreb, where the same group has kept publishing for more than 30 years. Work from elsewhere agrees in direction but is small.
What is unusual about the rat doses? Effects are reported at 10 µg/kg and again at 10 ng/kg, a thousand times less. Similar outcomes at both ends sit badly with an ordinary dose–response relationship.
Single compound or blend for an experiment? Only the single compound lets you assign a result to BPC-157; a blend reports on the mixture as a whole.
Research use only. This page describes BPC-157 for laboratory and scientific research. Research material has no marketing authorisation, whatever the status of the molecule as a medicine elsewhere, and is not meant for human or veterinary use. Nothing on this page is medical advice; the doses above are those reported in published studies, not recommendations. Check the rules that apply in your country and at your institution before ordering.