BPC-157: what the animal and cell studies actually show

BPC-157 is a 15-amino-acid fragment of a protein found in gastric juice, and it has one of the largest preclinical literatures of any repair peptide. Almost all of it is rodent and cell-culture work, and much of it comes from a single research group in Zagreb. Three papers worth reading: 1. Sikirić et al. (Gut Liver, 2020), a review of the gut-protection and organ-protection findings across injury models. https://doi.org/10.5009/gnl18490 2. Hsieh et al. (J Mol Med, 2017), on blood-vessel growth through the VEGFR2 pathway in cells and in rats. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00109-016-1488-y 3. Gwyer et al. (Cell Tissue Res, 2019), which reviews the tendon, ligament and muscle healing studies and points out how few groups have reproduced them. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-019-03016-8 The open question is replication. Most of the positive results come from the same lab, and there are no published controlled human trials. For discussion: which findings have been reproduced by independent groups, and which models do you think are strongest? The full write-up is in Guides: BPC-157 Research.