BPC-157 is a synthetic 15-amino-acid peptide with the sequence Gly-Glu-Pro-Pro-Pro-Gly-Lys-Pro-Ala-Asp-Asp-Ala-Gly-Leu-Val, described in the literature as a stable partial sequence of a protein isolated from human gastric juice. It is the most widely studied tissue-repair research peptide and also one of the most frequently overstated, so this page separates what the published work reports from what it does not. We supply research-grade BPC-157 as lyophilized powder in sealed vials, for laboratory use only.
What is BPC-157, precisely
BPC stands for body protection compound. The peptide is a 15-residue sequence derived from a larger protein reported in gastric juice, and its defining practical property is stability: unlike most short peptides, it has been described as resistant to degradation in human gastric juice for hours, which is unusual and is the basis for the oral and mucosal formats that exist for it. Its pentadecapeptide designation simply reflects the fifteen residues.
There is an important caveat that any honest technical page should state. The parent protein from which BPC-157 is said to derive is not well characterised in the mainstream proteomics literature, and the peptide has no confirmed endogenous receptor. It is best described as a synthetic sequence with reported biological activity, not as a well-mapped fragment of a known signalling system.
Origin and structure
- Sequence. Gly-Glu-Pro-Pro-Pro-Gly-Lys-Pro-Ala-Asp-Asp-Ala-Gly-Leu-Val — 15 residues, linear, no disulfide bridges.
- Composition. Four prolines and no cysteines, methionines or aromatic residues. The proline content restricts conformational flexibility and contributes to its protease resistance; the absence of methionine removes the oxidation liability that affects many peptides; the absence of tryptophan or tyrosine means it has almost no UV absorbance at 280 nm, so analytical detection relies on the peptide bond at around 214 nm.
- Identifiers. CAS 137525-51-0, formula C62H98N16O22, molecular weight 1419.55 Da.
- Salt form. Commonly supplied as an acetate salt; some material circulates as an arginate salt, which is a different substance in terms of what a weighed sample contains.
How BPC-157 is thought to work
No specific receptor has been identified, which shapes everything about how the mechanism is described. The published literature proposes several converging pathways rather than a single one:
- Angiogenesis. The most consistently reported mechanism. Studies describe upregulation of VEGF receptor 2 signalling and increased vessel formation in angiogenesis assays and in tissue models.
- Nitric oxide system interaction. Multiple papers report effects that are modified by NO synthase inhibitors or NO donors, suggesting involvement of that pathway.
- Growth factor and fibroblast effects. Reported influence on fibroblast migration, collagen organisation and FAK-paxillin signalling in tendon-derived cells.
- Gut-brain axis and neurotransmitter systems. A smaller strand of work reports interactions with dopaminergic and serotonergic systems, largely from a single research group.
That last point generalises. A substantial share of the BPC-157 literature originates from one research group in Croatia, which is not a reason to dismiss the work but is a reason to weight independent replication heavily when it exists. Our review of what BPC-157 has and has not been studied for goes through this in detail.
What research has examined
- Gastrointestinal models. The original research area: rodent models of gastric and intestinal mucosal injury, inflammatory bowel models, and fistula healing studies.
- Tendon, ligament and muscle. Rodent transection and injury models reporting accelerated tissue recovery, plus cell work on tendon fibroblast migration.
- Vascular and organ studies. Work on vessel formation, and reports in models of organ injury.
- Human data. There is no substantial published human trial evidence. Early-phase work has been registered but peer-reviewed human outcome data are essentially absent. Every well-known claim about this peptide rests on rodent and cell studies.
The methodological pattern in the rodent literature is worth understanding before designing anything around it. Most studies use acute injury models — a transection, an induced lesion, a chemically provoked mucosal defect — followed by comparison of exposed and control tissue at a fixed endpoint. That design detects acceleration of an ongoing repair process well, and it is the right design for the question these papers asked. It says much less about a system that is not actively repairing, which is the setting most extrapolations assume. When reading a claim about BPC-157, the first question is which model produced it and whether the model resembles the situation being extrapolated to.
Forms and sizes we supply
| Attribute | Specification |
|---|---|
| Form | Lyophilized powder, sealed glass vial |
| Sizes | 5 mg, 10 mg, 15 mg, 20 mg |
| Purity | Greater than or equal to 99% by HPLC, lot-matched COA |
| CAS | 137525-51-0 |
| Molecular weight | 1419.55 Da |
| Formula | C62H98N16O22 |
| Sequence | Gly-Glu-Pro-Pro-Pro-Gly-Lys-Pro-Ala-Asp-Asp-Ala-Gly-Leu-Val |
| Intended use | Laboratory research only |
Beyond injectable vials, BPC-157 is supplied as capsules, sublingual troches, nasal spray and cream, plus blends including BPC-157 with TB-500 and BPC-157 with KPV. Its unusual gastric stability is why the oral formats are plausible at all. Everything sits in the tissue repair peptides collection.
A note on route in preclinical work. Published rodent studies have used intraperitoneal, intragastric and topical administration, and the reported effects are not uniform across them. Because the peptide is described as gastric-stable, intragastric work is unusually well represented for a peptide of this size, and several papers explicitly compare routes. When citing an effect, cite the route as well: an outcome reported after intragastric administration is not evidence for the same outcome by another route, and conflating the two is one of the more common errors in secondary summaries of this literature, and it propagates quickly once a claim leaves the original paper.
Reconstitution and storage in a lab context
The arithmetic is a laboratory calculation: a 10 mg vial reconstituted with 2 mL of bacteriostatic water gives 5 mg/mL, equal to 5,000 mcg/mL, so 0.1 mL of that solution contains 500 mcg of peptide. BPC-157 is undemanding to prepare — small, water-soluble, no disulfide bridge, no oxidation-prone residues — which is part of why it is a common first peptide for laboratories new to this work.
Store sealed lyophilized powder at minus 20 degrees Celsius, protected from light and moisture; hold reconstituted solution at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius and use within the study window. Aliquot at reconstitution to avoid repeated freeze-thaw rounds. See our reconstitution guide.
Purity, COA and how to read it
Expect an HPLC chromatogram with main-peak area percentage, mass spectrometry identity against the theoretical 1419.55 Da, net peptide content, lot number and analysis date. Two BPC-157-specific points matter. First, the salt form: acetate and arginate salts contain different amounts of peptide per milligram, so a certificate that does not state salt form and net peptide content leaves your actual concentration undetermined. Second, detection wavelength: with no aromatic residues, this peptide is quantified at around 214 nm, and a chromatogram recorded only at 280 nm would show almost nothing — worth noticing when assessing whether a certificate was generated for this molecule or copied from a template. See how to read a COA.
Two further points shape how this peptide should be handled as a research object. The first is analytical: with four prolines and no aromatic residues, BPC-157 gives an unremarkable chromatogram, and closely related deletion sequences missing one proline elute near the main peak. A high purity figure obtained on a short gradient is weaker evidence than the same figure obtained on a gradient that resolves those neighbours, so the method matters as much as the number. The second is evidential: because so much secondary writing about this peptide compresses rodent findings into general claims, a laboratory citing it should return to the primary studies and record the species, model, route and endpoint. That habit takes little time and is the difference between a defensible statement about what has been observed and a repetition of a claim whose original scope has been lost.
Regulatory status
BPC-157 is not an approved medicine in any jurisdiction. In the United States it has been placed in the FDA category of bulk substances not eligible for compounding, which is a specific regulatory determination and not a safety endorsement in either direction. It is also on the World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited list. Research-grade BPC-157 is supplied as a laboratory reference chemical, research use only, not approved or formulated for human or veterinary administration. See research use only, explained.
Related peptides and comparisons
The most common pairing is with TB-500, compared in BPC-157 vs TB-500.