A 15-amino-acid synthetic peptide studied mostly in rats for tendon, muscle and gut healing. Human data is a handful of tiny pilot studies.
Also called Body Protection Compound 157, Bepecin, PL 14736, PL-10, PLD-116, Pentadecapeptide BPC 157
BPC-157 is a lab-made chain of 15 amino acids. A Croatian group at the University of Zagreb described it in 1993 as a fragment of a larger protein they isolated from human gastric juice. Almost everything known about it comes from rat studies, and most of those come from that same group. In rats it speeds the healing of cut Achilles tendons, crushed muscles, stomach ulcers and surgically made fistulas.
The human record is thin. There are two rectal-enema studies from the early 2000s that were only ever published as conference abstracts, and three small reports from one Florida clinic: 16 people with knee pain surveyed by phone, 12 women with interstitial cystitis, and 2 healthy adults given IV infusions. Only the two enema studies had placebo groups. The healthy-volunteer study tested safety, and the ulcerative colitis trial did not show a clear difference from placebo.
It is not approved as a drug anywhere in the world. WADA bans it at all times. In 2026 the FDA took it off its list of peptides flagged as a safety risk for compounding, and an FDA advisory panel voted 8 to 6 to let pharmacies compound it, but the FDA has not acted on that vote, so it is still not a legal compounding ingredient in the US as of October 2026.
What it binds to, and what happens inside the body after that, step by step.
Nobody has identified a single receptor that BPC-157 binds. FDA reviewers wrote in 2026 that its molecular targets are unknown. Cell and rat studies point to three effects that overlap: more new blood vessel growth around an injury, faster movement of fibroblasts into the wound, and changes in nitric oxide signaling. One cell study found it raised growth hormone receptor levels on rat tendon cells.
Human results and animal results are kept apart below. A result in rats tells you a mechanism is plausible. It does not tell you what happens in a person.
In rats, BPC-157 consistently speeds the healing of tendons, muscle, ligaments, bone and gut, but nearly all of that work comes from one research group. In humans there are five small studies in which about 80 people received BPC-157. Three had no control group, and the one placebo-controlled efficacy trial (ulcerative colitis, published only as an abstract) showed no clear difference from placebo. A 2025 systematic review found 35 animal studies and 1 clinical study relevant to sports injuries and concluded there is no clinical safety data.
53 adults with mild to moderate ulcerative colitis, randomized 1:1, 46 completed
Disease activity fell 3.2 points on BPC-157 vs 1.6 on placebo over two weeks; the difference between groups was not statistically clear (95% CI -4.84 to 1.62).
Read the study16 adults with knee pain at one Florida clinic, retrospective phone survey
11 of 12 who got BPC-157 alone reported significant improvement; there was no control group and no standardized pain or function scale.
Read the study12 women with moderate to severe interstitial cystitis who had failed pentosan polysulfate
10 of 12 reported complete symptom resolution after one bladder-wall injection procedure; no control group, no adverse events reported.
Read the study2 healthy adults who had used IV BPC-157 before
Two days of infusions caused no reported side effects and no measurable change in heart, liver, kidney, thyroid or glucose markers.
Read the studyRats, Achilles tendon transection model
Treated rats had higher load to failure, better walking function scores and smaller tendon defects over 14 days than saline controls.
Read the studyRat hind-limb ischemia model plus human endothelial cells
BPC-157 sped blood flow recovery and increased vessel counts in ischemic rat muscle, and activated VEGFR2-Akt-eNOS signaling in cells.
Read the studyRats and beagle dogs, IV and intramuscular dosing
The intact peptide had an elimination half-life under 30 minutes and was broken down into small fragments and single amino acids.
Read the studyThese are questions the published research has not answered.
No product containing BPC-157 is approved as a medicine by the FDA.
No country has approved a BPC-157 drug. Pliva developed it as PL 14736 for inflammatory bowel disease in the early 2000s and did not bring it to market. Two placebo-controlled trials were registered in 2026: a 120-person phase 2 trial in hamstring strains at sites in China (recruiting) and a 30-person phase 1 trial after rotator cuff surgery at the University of Arkansas (not yet recruiting). Outside trials it is sold online labeled 'research use only'. WADA lists it by name under S0 (non-approved substances), banned in and out of competition.
No human half-life has been published for BPC-157, so we do not draw a clearance curve. Half-lives quoted online for it are usually estimates from animal data.
This table records the doses that trials and approved labels used, with the source for each row. It is a record of research, not a recommendation, and it is open to free members.
Which symptoms are expected and which mean stop and get help: side effects and red flags.
Tap a claim to see what the studies found.
Tendon healing has been shown in rats. No controlled human trial of a tendon or ligament injury has been completed; the first placebo-controlled hamstring trial only started recruiting in 2026.
What is sold is a lab-made 15-amino-acid chain. The Zagreb group described it in 1993 as a piece of a larger gastric juice protein, but coming from a body protein does not make an injected synthetic dose natural or safe, and no human study has measured its safety beyond two weeks.
About 80 people have received it in published reports, for one day to two weeks. FDA reviewers concluded in 2026 that there is insufficient clinical safety information to characterize its safety profile.
An FDA advisory committee recommended adding it to the compounding list. That vote is not binding, it is not drug approval, and FDA had not started the required rulemaking as of October 2026.
The only controlled trial, a 53-person enema study, showed both groups improved and the difference between BPC-157 and placebo was not statistically clear. It was never published beyond a conference abstract.
Oral dosing works in rats. No human study has compared oral and injected BPC-157 or measured how much oral peptide reaches the blood.
These pairings come up often. Almost none have been tested together in a trial, and the evidence note on each says so plainly.
Marketed for tendon, ligament and joint injuries on the idea that BPC-157 drives local blood vessel growth while TB-500 helps cells migrate.
EvidenceNo controlled study has tested the pair. The only human data is 4 knee patients in an uncontrolled survey who got BPC-157 plus thymosin beta-4 (form not stated), 3 of whom reported relief. An FDA adverse event report described skin and gum darkening after a research-label blend of the two.
No peer-reviewed stability study exists. Supplier data cited by FDA say the powder keeps about 3 weeks at room temperature and list long-term storage dry below -18 C (about 0 F), because moisture degrades it.
Supplier data cited by FDA claim 2 to 3 weeks at 4 C and 3 to 4 months frozen at -20 C. No peer-reviewed study has confirmed this, and FDA noted peptides like BPC-157 can aggregate and degrade with changes in pH, heat and concentration.
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