BPC-157: what the studies say (animal and human data)

What it is

BPC-157 is a synthetic peptide made of 15 amino acids, which is why it is called a pentadecapeptide. Its sequence is GEPPPGKPADDAGLV and it weighs 1419 daltons (Staresinic 2003). It is a partial copy of a larger protein found in human gastric juice that its discoverers named body protection compound (Chang 2011). Most of the published work comes from one university group in Zagreb, Croatia. Early papers mention that the Croatian company Pliva took it into clinical trials for inflammatory bowel disease under the code PL 14736 (Klicek 2008). No result of those trials has been published, and BPC-157 is not an approved medicine in any country (Poolton 2026). It is sold for research as a freeze-dried powder.

What the studies looked at

Almost all the evidence comes from rats and from cells in a dish.

• Tendon. Rats had the Achilles tendon cut through and received BPC-157 or saline by injection into the abdomen once a day (Staresinic 2003). A second model detached the tendon from the heel bone (Krivic 2006). Tendon fibroblasts, the cells that rebuild tendon, were grown with or without the peptide (Chang 2011). A 2026 study compared BPC-157, TB-500 and both in 32 rats with a repaired Achilles tendon (Biçer 2026).
• Gut. Rats received stomach-damaging doses of anti-inflammatory drugs, or an injection that causes chronic arthritis (Sikiric 1997). Another model created a fistula, an abnormal channel between the colon and the skin (Klicek 2008).
• Blood vessels and skin. New vessel growth was measured in chick embryo membranes, in human endothelial cells (the cells lining vessels) and in rats with a blocked leg artery (Hsieh 2017), after tying off the main abdominal vein in rats (Vukojević 2018), and in alkali burns on rat skin (Huang 2015).
• Safety and fate in the body. A toxicology programme in mice, rats, rabbits and dogs (Xu 2020) and a study of absorption and breakdown in rats and dogs (He 2022).
• People. A retrospective chart review of knee injections at one clinic in Florida, in which 16 of 17 patients were reached by phone (Lee 2021), and a pilot study of 12 women with interstitial cystitis, a painful bladder condition (Lee 2024). A 2026 systematic review searched for every human study published up to 1 June 2026 (Poolton 2026).

What the studies say

Tendon, in rats. Daily injections of 10 µg or 10 ng per kg improved healing of the cut tendon on every measure used: the force needed to break it, a walking-based function index, the microscopic picture and the size of the gap, assessed on days 1, 4, 7, 10 and 14 (Staresinic 2003). After detachment from the bone, BPC-157 restored tendon-to-bone healing and reduced the damage caused by a corticosteroid (Krivic 2006). In the 2026 comparison, rats given 10 µg per kg per day for four weeks had numerically better tendon scores than controls without reaching statistical significance, and adding TB-500 brought no extra benefit (Biçer 2026).

Tendon cells. BPC-157 sped up the outgrowth of fibroblasts from tendon explants, helped the cells survive oxidative stress and increased their migration in a dose-dependent way, through a signalling pair called FAK and paxillin. It did not make the cells multiply faster (Chang 2011).

Gut, in rats. BPC-157 reduced stomach and small-bowel lesions caused by indomethacin, aspirin and diclofenac, and it reduced adjuvant arthritis over 14 days, 30 days and 1 year (Sikiric 1997). Given by injection or in drinking water, it closed colon-to-skin fistulas, and the effect persisted when nitric oxide production was blocked, while sulphasalazine helped only moderately and a corticosteroid made things worse (Klicek 2008).

Blood vessels and skin. BPC-157 increased vessel density in chick membranes and in endothelial tube assays, sped up the return of blood flow in rats with a blocked leg artery, and raised the receptor VEGFR2 on vessel cells (Hsieh 2017). After the main abdominal vein was tied off, treated rats showed less vein injury, less thrombosis and faster opening of bypass veins (Vukojević 2018). On alkali-burned rat skin it accelerated wound closure and increased collagen deposition by day 18 (Huang 2015).

Safety and fate in animals. A single dose produced no treatment-related effects in any species. Repeated doses were tolerated in dogs, with a fall in blood creatinine at 2 mg per kg that reversed within 2 weeks. Local irritation was mild and no genetic or embryo-foetal toxicity was seen (Xu 2020). In rats and dogs the peptide left the blood with a half-life under 30 minutes, bioavailability after intramuscular injection was 14 to 19 % in rats and 45 to 51 % in dogs, and it was broken down into small fragments and amino acids (He 2022).

People. In the knee series, 11 of the 12 patients who received BPC-157 alone (91.6 %) reported significant improvement, and 14 of 16 overall (87.5 %) reported relief. No validated pain or function scale was used (Lee 2021). In the bladder pilot, 10 of 12 women reported complete resolution of symptoms after a single procedure in which 10 mg was injected into the bladder wall, and no adverse events were reported (Lee 2024).

What the researchers flagged

• Three human studies, 30 people. The 2026 systematic review found only the knee series (16), the bladder pilot (12) and a 2-person intravenous safety study. All three reported improvement, all were rated as poor methodological quality, and the certainty of the evidence was "very low". The authors concluded that BPC-157 should not be used in humans outside regulated trials (Poolton 2026).
• One group, small animals. A 2019 review noted that most studies came from small rodent models and a handful of research groups, that efficacy in humans was unconfirmed, and that few adverse reactions had been reported (Gwyer 2019).
• No validated dose or long-term safety. A 2026 orthopaedic review found no validated dosing, no human pharmacokinetic data and no long-term safety data, and raised concerns about the identity, purity, concentration and sterility of products sold online (Tham 2026). A 2025 review reached the same conclusion and called the compound investigational (McGuire 2025).
• Short half-life. In animals the peptide left the blood within about half an hour, which leaves open how it acts for longer (He 2022).
• Sport. The 2026 Prohibited List of the World Anti-Doping Agency names BPC-157 as an example of a non-approved substance, class S0, banned at all times (WADA 2026).