Stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157: novel therapy in gastrointestinal tract
Sikiric et al./PubMed/2011
Why It Matters
This paper caught my attention because BPC-157 gets hyped in biohacking circles, but the actual evidence is almost entirely preclinical. This 2011 review summarizes rat studies showing gut-protective effects — which is interesting for peptide research — but there's a massive gap between rodent models and human outcomes. The authors mention 'safe in inflammatory bowel disease clinical trials' but provide zero data or citations for those trials, which is a red flag for anyone considering this compound.
Key Findings
- BPC-157 reduced esophageal inflammation and normalized sphincter pressure in rats with esophagitis, but had variable effects in healthy rats
- The peptide accelerated healing of intestinal fistulas in rats, even when treatment was delayed by one month after injury
- In rat models of short-bowel syndrome, BPC-157 promoted weight gain and increased intestinal villus height and muscle thickness over 4 weeks
- The compound protected against alcohol and NSAID-induced gastric lesions in rodents and showed free radical scavenging properties
- BPC-157 remained stable in human gastric juice and showed no reported toxicity in the animal studies reviewed
Read the Paper↗PMID: 21548867