BPC-157
Body Protection Compound 157 · PL 14736 · PL-10 · Pentadecapeptide BPC 157 · Bepecin
Gastric-juice-derived pentadecapeptide studied for tendon, ligament and gut healing.
Typical dose
250 mcg
1x daily (some split into 2x daily during an acute injury)
Range
200–500
mcg
Half-life
15 min
see Dosing
Evidence
Animal only
Subcutaneous · Intramuscular · Oral
What it is
BPC-157 is a 15-amino-acid sequence taken from a larger protective protein found in human gastric juice. It was developed at the University of Zagreb, and unlike almost every other injectable peptide it is stable in stomach acid, which is why an oral route is even on the table.
In rodents it consistently speeds healing of transected tendon, ligament, muscle, bone and nerve, protects the gut lining against NSAIDs and alcohol, and drives new blood-vessel growth into damaged tissue. The consistency is genuinely striking. The caveat is equally real: the overwhelming majority of those several hundred papers come from a single research group, and the musculoskeletal work has never been independently replicated in a large animal or a human.
Human evidence is thin. An oral formulation (PL 14736) entered early trials for ulcerative colitis but the results were never fully published, and nothing at all has been published for the injectable tendon and ligament use that the bodybuilding world actually cares about. Everything below is community practice extrapolated from rat dosing.
How it works
The best-characterised action is on the nitric-oxide and angiogenesis pathways. BPC-157 upregulates VEGFR2 signalling and modulates the eNOS system, which promotes capillary ingrowth into damaged tissue. Blood supply is the rate-limiting step in healing poorly vascularised structures like tendon and ligament, and that is the usual explanation for its effects there.
In cultured tendon fibroblasts it increases cell outgrowth, survival and migration, and upregulates growth-hormone receptor expression on those cells. It also interacts with dopamine, serotonin and GABA systems, which is where the reported mood, sleep and gut-motility effects are thought to originate. No single receptor for BPC-157 has been identified.
Dosing
Rodent doses that produce healing are around 10 mcg/kg. The 250-500 mcg human range is an allometric estimate that has never been validated in people.
Reconstitution calculator
Pre-loaded with BPC-157’s vial size, water volume and typical dose. Change anything.
Typical: 250 mcg · range 200–500
Draw to
10 u
0.1 mL · 250 mcg
Concentration
2.5 mg/mL
25 mcg per unit
Doses per vial
20
Vial lasts
2 weeks 6 days
Draw to 10 units on the barrel.
Once mixed
Refrigerate at 2-8 C and use within about 30 days; freezing a reconstituted vial is not recommended because freeze-thaw cycles degrade the peptide.
Aim the bacteriostatic water down the inside wall of the vial rather than straight onto the powder cake, then swirl or roll it until clear — never shake. 5 mg in 2 mL gives 2.5 mg/mL, so a 250 mcg dose is 0.1 mL, or 10 units on a U-100 insulin syringe.
Storage
Before mixing
Sealed and dry, stable at room temperature for weeks and in a fridge at 2-8 C for two years or more; keep it out of direct light.
After mixing
Refrigerate at 2-8 C and use within about 30 days; freezing a reconstituted vial is not recommended because freeze-thaw cycles degrade the peptide.
Reported benefits
- ▪Speeds tendon, ligament and muscle healing in rodent transection models
- ▪Protects the gut lining against NSAID, alcohol and stress-induced damage in animals
- ▪Drives angiogenesis into poorly vascularised connective tissue
- ▪Widely reported anecdotally to reduce joint and tendon pain within a few weeks
- ▪Acid-stable, so gut-focused use does not require injection
- ▪No toxicity ceiling has been established in rodent studies even at very high doses
Side effects
- ▪Injection-site redness, itching or a transient welt
- ▪Headache and light-headedness, usually in the first week
- ▪Nausea or loose stools, more common with the oral form
- ▪Flushing or a warm sensation shortly after injecting
- ▪Long-term human safety is completely unknown — there is no chronic-exposure data
- ▪Pro-angiogenic activity is theoretically undesirable in anyone with an existing tumour
Do not use if
- ▪Active or recently treated cancer, given the peptide's angiogenic activity
- ▪Pregnancy and breastfeeding — no data of any kind
- ▪Drug-tested athletes: BPC-157 is named by example in WADA category S0 (non-approved substances) and is prohibited at all times
- ▪Known hypersensitivity to the peptide or to the benzyl alcohol in bacteriostatic water
Evidence level — Animal only
Preclinical animal data — no meaningful human trials.
Not approved as a drug in any market and barred from US compounding pharmacies after the FDA assigned it to Category 2 of the 503A bulk-substances list; sold elsewhere as a research chemical.
Commonly run with
TB-500
Actin-regulating thymosin peptide used for soft-tissue repair and range of motion.
2.5 mg · 2x weekly during loading, then once every 1-2 weeks for maintenance
GHK-Cu
Copper-carrying tripeptide studied for collagen synthesis, wound repair and skin remodelling.
2 mg · 1x daily
KPV
Tripeptide tail of alpha-MSH used to damp gut and skin inflammation.
500 mcg · 1x daily
BPC-157 FAQ
Does oral BPC-157 work as well as injecting it?+
For gut problems it probably does, because the peptide survives stomach acid and the gut is the target tissue — that is how the original ulcerative colitis work was done. For a tendon or ligament, systemic exposure from oral dosing is much lower and most people report clearly better results from subcutaneous injection.
Do I have to inject near the injury?+
There is no rodent evidence that local injection beats systemic dosing. The animal studies used intraperitoneal and intramuscular routes at distant sites and still saw tendon healing. Injecting nearby is common practice and harmless, but it is convention rather than a requirement.
Is the half-life really only 15 minutes?+
Yes. Rat IV elimination half-life measured 15.2 minutes and IM was under 30 minutes. That does not automatically kill once-daily dosing, since the downstream effects on gene expression and vessel growth outlast the peptide in plasma, but it is the reason many people split the dose twice daily during an acute injury.
How long before I notice anything?+
Reported timelines are roughly one to two weeks for gut symptoms and three to six weeks for tendon or ligament pain. If six weeks of consistent daily dosing produces nothing, extending the course further rarely helps.
Can I run it continuously?+
Most people run 4-8 week blocks tied to a specific injury and then stop. There is no chronic-exposure safety data in any species at these doses, and no evidence that running it indefinitely outperforms a defined course.
References
- 1.Pharmacokinetics, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of body-protective compound 157, a potential drug for treating various wounds, in rats and dogs — Frontiers in Pharmacology (2022) PMID 36588717
- 2.Stable Gastric Pentadecapeptide BPC 157, Robert's Stomach Cytoprotection/Adaptive Cytoprotection/Organoprotection, and Selye's Stress Coping Response: Progress, Achievements, and the Future — Gut and Liver (2020) PMID 31158953
- 3.Stable Gastric Pentadecapeptide BPC 157 and Wound Healing — Frontiers in Pharmacology (2021) PMID 34267654
More healing & recovery
GHK-Cu
Copper-carrying tripeptide studied for collagen synthesis, wound repair and skin remodelling.
2 mg · 1x daily
KPV
Tripeptide tail of alpha-MSH used to damp gut and skin inflammation.
500 mcg · 1x daily
TB-500
Actin-regulating thymosin peptide used for soft-tissue repair and range of motion.
2.5 mg · 2x weekly during loading, then once every 1-2 weeks for maintenance