BPC-157
Body Protection Compound-157 · PL 14736 · Pentadecapeptide BPC 157
BPC-157 is a laboratory-made sequence of fifteen amino acids derived from a larger protein found in human gastric juice. It does not occur in the body in this form. The fragment is synthetic, and the parent protein's own role is not fully characterised.
Nearly all published work is preclinical: cell cultures and rodent models, largely from a small number of research groups. Reported findings include faster healing of injured tendon and muscle tissue in rats and protective effects on the gut lining. Independent replication in humans is the thing that is missing, and it is a substantial gap, not a technicality. Nothing below should be read as an expected outcome in a person.
It is worth being precise about what 'extensively researched' means here, because the phrase appears often. There is a large volume of published work, and almost none of it is in humans. Volume of papers and weight of evidence are not the same measurement.
How it works
The most frequently proposed mechanism is angiogenic: BPC-157 appears to promote the formation of new blood vessels in injured tissue in animal models, partly by upregulating receptors involved in vascular growth. More blood supply to a healing site plausibly means faster repair.
Other reported effects include interaction with nitric oxide signalling and with growth factor pathways involved in collagen formation. These are proposed mechanisms drawn from animal experiments — not established pharmacology — and how they would translate to humans is unknown.
Regulatory status — United States
Not approved for human use in the United States. The FDA has treated BPC-157 as a substance raising safety concerns for use in compounded preparations. Material sold online is a research chemical with no manufacturing standard behind it.
Last reviewed 12 Aug 2026. Regulatory positions in this category change frequently; we date this line so you can see how current it is.
What it is studied for
Each entry states the evidence behind it. We do not rank indications by effectiveness — for most compounds here, that would be a claim nobody can support.
Tendon and ligament repair
Published reviewThe most commonly discussed use, and the one with the most supporting animal work.
EvidenceRat models of tendon and ligament injury report faster healing and improved mechanical strength. No human trials.
Gut and gastric protection
Published reviewReported protective effects on the stomach and intestinal lining.
EvidenceRodent models of induced gastric injury. One small human pilot in interstitial cystitis exists; it was uncontrolled and had twelve participants.
Muscle injury recovery
Published reviewDiscussed for recovery from crush and strain injuries.
EvidenceAnimal models only.
Identity and clearance
Molecule
- Class
- Pentadecapeptide
- Molecular weight
- 1419.53 Da
- Length
- 15 amino acids
Sequence
Gly-Glu-Pro-Pro-Pro-Gly-Lys-Pro-Ala-Asp-Asp-Ala-Gly-Leu-Val
A partial sequence of the human gastric protein BPC. The fragment is synthetic and does not occur in the body on its own.
Pharmacokinetics
Published reviewDerived from animal work. No human pharmacokinetic study has been published, so these figures should be treated as indicative rather than established.
Dose protocols reported in sources
Displayed for reference only. Every row says where it came from, and a trial protocol and a community convention are not the same kind of information. None of this is fed into the calculator, and none of it is a recommendation.
| Goal | Dose | Frequency | Route | Units, 5 mg vial | Source | Start this protocol |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tendon or joint injury | 250 mcg – 500 mcg | Once or twice daily | SubcutaneousCommunity sources commonly favour injecting near the injury site, on the reasoning that the effect is local. This has not been tested against injection elsewhere in humans. | 15–30 u | Community practice | Start this |
| General recovery | 250 mcg – 500 mcg | Once daily | Subcutaneous | 15–30 u | Community practice | Start this |
| Lower-end maintenance | 200 mcg – 250 mcg | Once daily | Subcutaneous | 12–15 u | Community practice | Start this |
Start this copies a row into a protocol of your own, which you can then edit. Where a source gave a dose range or an ambiguous frequency, those fields arrive empty — we will not pick a number on your behalf.
CheckRows marked community practice describe what people commonly do, drawn from public discussion. They are not derived from any trial and are not evidence that a dose is safe or effective.
Cycling
Community practice4 to 8 weeks on, 4 weeks or more off.
No study establishes an optimal cycle length, or that cycling is necessary at all. These figures describe what is commonly reported rather than what has been tested.
Calculator
Work out what to draw
Pre-filled with a 5 mg vial as a worked example. These are not recommended values — change them to match the vial in front of you.
Draw to 10 units on a 1 mL U-100 syringe. That is 0.1 mL, containing 250 mcg of BPC-157.
10 units sits exactly on a printed line.
Bioalmanac performs arithmetic on values you enter. It does not recommend doses, schedules or compounds, and nothing here is medical advice. Confirm every calculation against your vial and syringe before drawing, and speak with a licensed healthcare provider.
Open this calculation in the full calculator
Units, concentration, bacteriostatic water — the glossary defines the vocabulary, and a unit is not a fixed volume.
Safety
Reported effects
- Injection site redness, itching or irritationCommunity practice
Commonly reported
The most frequently described effect. Rotating sites reduces it.
- Lightheadedness or flushing shortly after injectionCommunity practice
Occasionally reported
- Nausea or changes in appetiteCommunity practice
Occasionally reported
- Long-term effectsCommunity practice
Unknown
No human safety study of any duration has been published. Absence of reported harm is not evidence of safety. It reflects the fact that nobody has looked systematically.
When to stop
- Any sign of infection at an injection site: spreading redness, warmth, swelling, pus, or fever.
- A rash, hives, swelling of the face or lips, or any difficulty breathing. Seek urgent medical care.
- Injection site reactions that worsen with each dose rather than settling.
- Any new or unexplained symptom you would normally see a doctor about. Stop first, then get it looked at.
- Before any planned surgery, and tell your surgeon. A compound proposed to promote blood vessel growth is relevant information for them.
Interactions and situations that need care
- Anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugsUse caution
BPC-157's most-cited proposed mechanism is promoting new blood vessel formation. How that interacts with drugs that alter clotting has not been studied, and the question is a real one, not a formality. Discuss it with the prescriber who manages your anticoagulation.
- Active or previous cancerUse caution
Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood supply, is also a process tumours depend on. No study has examined BPC-157 in people with cancer, in either direction. The absence of data is the reason for caution, not a finding.
- Pregnancy and breastfeedingAvoid
No reproductive or developmental safety data exists in humans.
- Competing in a tested sportAvoid
Prohibited at all times by the World Anti-Doping Agency under S0, with no therapeutic use exemption available.
- Children and adolescentsAvoid
No safety data in any age group, and none at all in minors.
SportProhibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency under S0: Non-Approved Substances, at all times. No therapeutic use exemption is available for substances in S0, because they hold no regulatory approval for human use anywhere.
What to expect
HonestlyThere is no human efficacy data for this compound, so there is no evidence-based timeline to give. Any site publishing a week-by-week schedule of expected effects has invented it.
- There is no human efficacy data, so there is no honest timeline to give you. Anyone publishing a week-by-week schedule of expected effects for BPC-157 has invented it.
- What people report anecdotally varies enormously, and anecdote cannot separate a real effect from the natural course of an injury that was going to improve anyway.
- Injuries heal on their own. Attributing recovery to a compound taken during recovery is the single hardest thing to get right without a control group.
- If you use it, decide in advance what you would count as a result and write down where you started. Nothing else will let you learn anything from your own experience.
Storage and handling
- Freeze-dried powder
- Refrigerated at 2–8 °C, protected from light. The freeze-dried powder is considerably more stable than the mixed solution.
- After mixing
- Refrigerated at 2–8 °C. Do not freeze once mixed. Discard if the solution becomes cloudy.
- Long-term, frozen
- Unopened lyophilised powder can be held at −20 °C or colder, sealed and protected from light, for far longer than refrigeration allows.
With other peptides
- TB-500synergistic
Frequently combined in community protocols on the reasoning that they act through different repair pathways. No controlled study has tested the combination.
- Thymosin Beta-4synergistic
The full protein that TB-500 is a fragment of, and the same pairing logic applies: new blood vessels alongside cell migration. Coherent as a mechanism, untested as a combination.
In use
Stacks with BPC-157 in them
Documented combinations, with full schedules.
Checking your vial
Research chemicals carry no manufacturing standard, so what the vial looks like is often the only quality signal available before you use it. More on assessing quality and COAs.
White, fluffy cake
Properly freeze-dried powder sits as a light cake covering the bottom of the vial.
Clear once mixed
After gentle swirling the solution should be completely clear, with no visible particles.
Loose or slightly clumped powder
Shipping shakes vials. Small clumps that dissolve completely on gentle swirling are not a problem.
Collapsed, melted or stuck to the sides
A cake that has slumped or fused to the glass suggests the vial got warm in transit. Heat damage cannot be undone by refrigerating it afterwards.
Cloudy or particulate after mixing
Persistent cloudiness or floating material after gentle swirling indicates degraded or contaminated material.
Questions
- Is there human evidence for BPC-157?
- There are no completed, published, controlled human trials establishing that it works or that it is safe. One small uncontrolled pilot in interstitial cystitis with twelve participants exists. The rest of the evidence base is animal studies, largely from a small number of research groups, without independent replication in people.
- Why is it sold as a research chemical?
- Because it is not an approved medicine. That label means the material has not been manufactured, tested or labelled to any pharmaceutical standard, and purity and identity vary between sellers.
- How is BPC-157 usually reconstituted?
- A 5 mg vial mixed with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water gives 2.5 mg per mL, which puts a 250 mcg dose at 10 units on a 1 mL U-100 syringe. Use the calculator on this page to check your own numbers against your own vial.
- Does injecting near the injury actually matter?
- It is very commonly recommended in community sources, on the reasoning that the effect is local. No human study has compared injecting near an injury against injecting elsewhere, so this is a plausible idea, not an established one.
References
Stable Gastric Pentadecapeptide BPC 157: Novel Therapy in Gastrointestinal Tract
Current Pharmaceutical Design, 2011 · Narrative review of preclinical work
Rats and mice
Summarises reported healing effects across tendon, muscle and gastrointestinal injury models, and proposes angiogenesis and nitric oxide signalling as mechanisms.
10.2174/138161211798109613
Brain-gut Axis and Pentadecapeptide BPC 157: Theoretical and Practical Implications
Current Neuropharmacology, 2016 · Review
Rats
Reviews cytoprotective effects on the gastric lining in induced-injury rodent models.
10.2174/1570159X13666160502153022
Commonly reported community protocols
Bioalmanac editorial summary of public community sources, 2026 · Not a study
Summarises the dose ranges and cycle lengths most consistently described in public discussion. Carries no evidential weight about safety or effect, and is recorded here only so readers can see what is commonly done and judge it as such.
BPC-157 compared with
BPC-157 vs Thymosin Beta-4
The two halves of the repair pairing, compared instead of combined. This is also where the TB-500 naming confusion does the most damage.
BPC-157 vs TB-500
Two research peptides discussed for tissue repair. Both rest on animal evidence, and they differ in proposed mechanism and in dose scale.
Related compounds
TB-500
A synthetic fragment of thymosin beta-4, a naturally occurring protein involved in cell migration and tissue repair. Animal evidence only.
Thymosin Beta-4
The full 43-amino-acid protein that TB-500 is a fragment of. It reached phase 2 trials in humans. TB-500 never has.
GHK-Cu
A naturally occurring copper-binding tripeptide with a long history in topical skincare research. Injected use is not what the research studied.
KPV
A three-amino-acid fragment of alpha-MSH studied for anti-inflammatory effects, largely in animal models of gut inflammation.
Next
What to do with BPC-157
- Keep a record of itTurn a dose and a schedule into a protocol, then log what you actually take. BPC-157 is filled in for you.
- See what it costsPer-milligram prices read from vendor sites and confirmed by a person, so vial sizes compare.
- Check a combinationWhat our profiles record about BPC-157 alongside each other compound — including the pairs where nothing is recorded.
Keep this page honest
If something here is wrong, out of date, or missing a source, tell us and we will fix it and say that we did.
This page is educational. It describes what published research reports, not what you should do. Peptides discussed here are largely not approved for human use, and nothing on Bioalmanac is medical advice. No clinician reviews these pages.
Page last updated 12 Aug 2026