The promoting effect of pentadecapeptide BPC 157 on tendon healing
Chang et al./PubMed/2011
Why It Matters
This paper caught my attention because BPC-157 gets hyped constantly in biohacking circles for tendon healing, but most people don't know what it actually does at the cellular level. This shows a specific mechanism — it helps tendon cells move to injury sites and survive oxidative stress, but it doesn't just make cells multiply faster. That's important context if you're considering this peptide for soft tissue injuries, though remember this is cell culture work, not human data.
Key Findings
- BPC-157 significantly accelerated tendon cell outgrowth from explanted tissue samples in lab culture
- The peptide did not directly increase cell proliferation rates (MTT assay showed no effect on cell division)
- Cell survival under hydrogen peroxide stress was significantly increased with BPC-157 treatment
- Migration of tendon fibroblasts increased in a dose-dependent manner, with effects on F-actin formation and cell spreading
- BPC-157 dose-dependently increased phosphorylation of FAK and paxillin proteins (key migration signals) without changing total protein levels
Read the Paper↗PMID: 21030672