Healing & recovery
BPC-157 + TB-500: published research
Also known as Body Protection Compound-157 with a thymosin beta-4 fragment
Two peptides that are usually studied separately and supplied here together. BPC-157 is a fragment of a protein found in stomach juice; TB-500 is a fragment of thymosin beta-4, a protein involved in how cells move and organise. Research on both centres on how injured tissue — tendon, muscle, gut lining — repairs itself.
Evidence at a glance
4 studies 2003–2021
- 1 Human trial
- 1 Human study
- 2 Animal study
What researchers look at
- Tendon and ligament
- Muscle injury
- Gut lining
- Cell migration
What is still unknown
No published study has tested the two together; each has mostly animal data and only small early human studies.
Studies in people
2- Human study
In a look-back review of 16 people with knee pain, 12 received knee injections of BPC-157 and 4 BPC-157 plus thymosin beta-4; most reported relief, with no control group.
Lee E, Padgett B. Intra-Articular Injection of BPC 157 for Multiple Types of Knee Pain. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. 2021. PMID 34324435
- Human trial
In a randomised, placebo-controlled study of 40 healthy volunteers, intravenous synthetic thymosin beta-4, given as a single dose and then daily for 14 days, was well tolerated, with infrequent mild-to-moderate adverse events and no dose-limiting toxicity.
Ruff D, et al. A randomized, placebo-controlled, single and multiple dose study of intravenous thymosin beta4 in healthy volunteers. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 2010. PMID 20536472
Animal studies
2- Animal study
In rats with surgically joined small-intestine segments (ileoileal anastomosis), injected BPC-157 improved anastomotic healing versus saline, with less oedema, fewer granulocytes, and more granulation tissue, collagen formation and epithelialisation.
Vuksic T, et al. Stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 in trials for inflammatory bowel disease (PL-10, PLD-116, PL14736, Pliva, Croatia) heals ileoileal anastomosis in the rat. Surgery Today. 2007. PMID 17713731
- Animal study
BPC-157 alone: in rats with cut Achilles tendons, it improved mechanical, functional and microscopic healing measures compared with saline.
Staresinic M, et al. Gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 accelerates healing of transected rat Achilles tendon and in vitro stimulates tendocytes growth. Journal of Orthopaedic Research. 2003. PMID 14554208
Short summaries of published studies, with links to the original papers. Results in animals or cells may not apply to people. This is not medical advice and not a guide to use.