What is BPC-157 used for?

What it is being studied for

• Knee pain: 14 of 16 patients (87.5%) reported improvement after injection into the knee, in a human observational study (retrospective chart review, no control group, no validated pain scale) [1].
• Interstitial cystitis (bladder pain): 10 of 12 women reported complete symptom resolution and 2 reported 80% improvement after one injection at cystoscopy, in a human observational study (uncontrolled pilot) [2].
• Intravenous safety: 2 adults given 10 mg then 20 mg by infusion showed no measurable change in heart, liver, kidney, thyroid or glucose markers, in a human observational study [3].
• Oral tablets: a registered randomized phase 1 safety trial in healthy volunteers (planned n=42) has status unknown and no results posted [4].
• Hamstring strain and rotator cuff repair: two registered randomized trials (planned n=120 and n=30) have not reported results [5][6].
• Ulcerative colitis: FDA’s briefing document for its July 2026 compounding advisory committee concluded there was a lack of evidence of effectiveness [7].
• Tendon healing: rats with a cut Achilles tendon showed higher load to failure and more collagen, in an animal study; tendon cells in culture showed no growth effect [8].
• Tendon cells: faster outgrowth, migration and survival under oxidative stress, in laboratory studies on rat cells [9][10].
• Blood-vessel growth: more new vessels and faster blood-flow recovery after hind-limb ischemia in rats, in animal and laboratory studies [11].
• Gut surgery: improved healing of a joined small-bowel section in rats at the two higher doses, in an animal study [12].

How it works

1. It switched on focal-adhesion signalling (FAK and paxillin) in rat tendon cells, which increased their migration and spreading [9].
2. It raised growth hormone receptor levels and JAK2 pathway activity in the same cells, and added growth hormone then increased their multiplication [10].
3. It increased VEGFR2, a blood-vessel growth receptor, in endothelial cells without raising its usual trigger VEGF-A [11].
4. What sets it apart: it is described as a partial sequence of a gastric-juice protein, and no receptor for BPC-157 itself was identified in these studies; its reported effects run through growth-factor and cell-adhesion signalling shown in rat and cell work [8][9].

Adverse events reported

• No side effects were reported in the 2 adults given intravenous infusions [3].
• No adverse events were reported in the 12-woman bladder pilot, and no one dropped out [2].
• The knee chart review reported no safety data [1].
• The oral phase 1 trial has posted no results, so no controlled human safety data exist [4].

Forms

Human data exist only from uncontrolled reports: injection into the knee [1], injection at cystoscopy [2] and intravenous infusion in 2 adults [3]. An oral tablet was registered for a phase 1 trial with no results posted [4]. Injection into the abdominal cavity has been studied only in rats [8][12], a topical cream only in burned mice [13], and no study of nasal or under-the-tongue forms was found.

For what the record shows on the oral form, see Does oral BPC-157 work?.