Osteogenic effect of gastric pentadecapeptide BPC-157 on segmental bone defect in rabbits
Sebecić et al./PubMed/1999
Why It Matters
This paper caught my attention because it's one of the few studies testing BPC-157 for bone healing rather than soft tissue. The fact that an injected peptide matched the performance of actual bone grafts is interesting, but this is rabbit data from 1999 with no human follow-up I can find. If you're considering BPC-157 for a fracture or bone injury, understand you're working from a single preclinical study, not established human evidence.
Key Findings
- BPC-157 at 10 micrograms/kg improved healing of 0.8 cm bone defects in rabbit radius bones, matching results from bone marrow transplantation and autologous bone grafts across radiographic and histological measures
- Multiple administration routes worked: local injection into the defect site, intermittent intramuscular injection (days 7, 9, 14, 16), and continuous daily intramuscular injection (days 7-21)
- Even very low doses showed effects — 10 nanograms/kg (1000x lower than standard dose) intramuscularly for 14 days still improved healing by quantitative histomorphometry
- Control rabbits receiving saline had zero complete healing at 6 weeks, while BPC-157-treated rabbits showed complete bony continuity across defects in some cases
- No adverse effects reported across any BPC-157 dosing regimen tested
Read the Paper↗PMID: 10071911