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BPC-157 + TB-500

Also known as BPC-157/TB-500 blend, BPC-157 & TB-500 recovery blend, the recovery stack, Wolverine, Wolverine blend, Wolverine stack

BPC-157 and TB-500 co-packed as the standard recovery blend; the combination itself has never been studied.

preclinical Blends & stacks research chemical

At a glance

Category
Blends & stacks
Status
research chemical
Route
subcutaneous or intramuscular, in user protocols often near the injured area
Half-life
Not established for the blend. BPC-157 has a plasma half-life of roughly 15 minutes in rats and about 5 minutes in dogs 3, with no published human figure; for the TB-500 heptapeptide no pharmacokinetics has been published in any species 2. There is no basis for a single combined number.
Onset
unknown; user protocols speak of days to weeks
Molecular weight
Not applicable to a mixture. Individually 1419.5 g/mol for BPC-157 and approximately 889 g/mol for the TB-500 heptapeptide.
Sequence
Not applicable: a co-lyophilised mixture of BPC-157 (GEPPPGKPADDAGLV) and the acetylated heptapeptide Ac-LKKTETQ.

Not a medicine and not approved anywhere. This is the plainly-named version of the most widely sold recovery blend; the same two peptides are marketed under invented names such as 'Wolverine' as well. There is no pharmacological standard behind the pairing. Both components are barred from US compounding: in September 2023 the FDA placed BPC-157 in category 2 of the interim 503A bulks list ('may present significant safety risks'), and 'Thymosin Beta-4, Fragment (LKKTETQ)' is named in the same category 4. What is sold is grey-market material labelled 'for research use only'; identity, purity and sterility are not controlled.

Doping status: Prohibited for athletes: BPC-157 falls under S0 (non-approved substances) and TB-500 under S2 (growth factors). Both components are on the prohibited list, so the blend is prohibited at all times.

Checked against the WADA 2026 Prohibited List. For a specific product and country, Global DRO is the lookup athletes are expected to use — the List names substances, not brand names.

What is in it

Mechanism of action

The blend has no mechanism of its own. The stated rationale is that BPC-157 supplies a local repair signal while TB-500 supplies a systemic cell-migration signal, so the two are said to cover complementary parts of healing. That is an argument built after the fact from two separate animal literatures. No experiment has tested whether the pair acts complementarily, redundantly or not at all when the two are given together 2.

BPC-157 is described as modulating the nitric oxide system and as acting through a VEGFR2-Akt-eNOS route with upregulation of FAK-paxillin signalling in tendon fibroblasts. Almost all of that work comes from a single research group in Zagreb, with limited independent replication, and there is an unexplained gap between the very short measured plasma half-life 3 and the prolonged tissue effects that are reported.

TB-500 is residues 17-23 of thymosin beta-4, the actin-binding motif. Full thymosin beta-4 buffers G-actin and thereby promotes cell migration and angiogenesis, and the clinical work has been done on the full 43-residue protein, not on this fragment — a phase III ophthalmic trial, for instance, used the whole protein 6. Part of the parent protein's antifibrotic action also runs through its N-terminal fragment Ac-SDKP, which residues 17-23 cannot generate. The fragment is not mechanistically equivalent to the protein it is cut from.

The one mechanistic point the two share is angiogenesis, and that is also the point that makes the combination worth caution. Two agents that promote new vessel formation, given together, is precisely the scenario in which an interaction would matter — and precisely the scenario nobody has studied 2.

What the research shows

There is no research on this combination. A PubMed search for BPC-157 together with thymosin beta-4 returns a handful of records, none of which administered the two together; they are reviews or papers noting that the combination has not been studied. There is no human trial, no animal experiment and no registered study of the mixture. Two compounds with no randomised human evidence between them do not become one compound with evidence by being placed in the same vial 2.

Research in humans

No published human study of the combination. Individually: BPC-157 has no published randomised controlled human trial for tendon, ligament or muscle repair — a 2025 systematic review in HSS Journal screened 544 articles and found 35 preclinical studies and one uncontrolled retrospective case series of 12 patients 1. The TB-500 heptapeptide has not a single published human clinical trial for any indication and no published human pharmacokinetics. A 2026 review in the American Journal of Sports Medicine reaches the same conclusion for both components and reports no clinical evidence for combinations 2.

Animal and lab research

No animal study administering BPC-157 and TB-500 together could be located. Separately there is a broad rodent literature for BPC-157 across tendon transection, muscle contusion, intestinal and burn models, and a substantial preclinical basis for full thymosin beta-4 in cardiac, corneal and neurological injury. Neither transfers to the mixture, and the thymosin beta-4 work does not transfer cleanly even to the fragment, since the trials used the whole protein 6.

Caveats. Beyond the absence of any combination research: the ratio is not standardised — 5 mg/5 mg (a 10 mg vial) and 10 mg/10 mg (a 20 mg vial) are the usual formats, but other splits are sold; the material is unregulated, so identity, purity and sterility are unverified; and some vendors supply the full thymosin beta-4 protein under the name TB-500, so a buyer may not know which molecule is in the vial. Checking the stated molecular mass (approximately 889 Da for the fragment, approximately 4921 Da for the protein) is the only practical way to tell them apart.

What it is used for

  • Marketed for tendon, ligament and muscle injuries
  • Marketed for post-operative and post-injury recovery
  • Marketed for recovery from heavy training loads in athletes
  • Widely used in practice on the basis of anecdote and animal studies; no combination use has been tested 2. What evidence exists belongs to the components separately — a 2025 systematic review of BPC-157 in orthopaedic sports medicine found the literature to be preclinical 1, and no comparable body of work exists for the LKKTETQ fragment 2

Dosing

Dose
User protocols describe a volume rather than a milligram figure: typically 0.1-0.25 ml of reconstituted blend per injection. Reconstituted as in the example below (a 20 mg vial in 4 ml, giving 2.5 mg/ml of each), that volume delivers roughly 0.25-0.6 mg of each component 2
Frequency
once daily, or in some protocols twice weekly on the assumption that TB-500 acts for days
Route
subcutaneous or intramuscular
Duration
cycles of 4-8 weeks are described, sometimes with a lower-frequency maintenance phase
  • There is no established dose. All figures come from user protocols and vendor pages; no clinical study of either component supports them 12.
  • The dose has to be expressed as a volume, because one injection delivers both compounds in whatever ratio the vial was filled at.
  • The two components are used at very different doses when bought separately: BPC-157 protocols run in the low hundreds of micrograms per day, TB-500 protocols in milligrams a few times a week. A 1:1 mixture forces both onto one schedule, which means at least one of them is being given on a schedule nobody has ever proposed for it. This is a concrete pharmacological objection to the blend, not a theoretical one.
  • The fixed ratio means neither component can be adjusted alone, a reaction cannot be attributed to either, and stopping means stopping both.
  • The twice-weekly schedules rest on a claim that TB-500 has a long half-life. That claim has never been published 2 and is implausible for an unstructured seven-residue peptide — for comparison, BPC-157's measured plasma half-life is about 15 minutes in rats 3.
  • There is no evidence that injecting near the injury works better than systemic administration; that is an assumption carried over from practice.

These figures describe what the literature and published protocols report. They are not advice and not a dosing instruction.

Protocols

Injection course

user protocol — not validated

Source: Vendor pages and user forums, stated as a volume of reconstituted blend

This is not a validated schedule. It is a pattern that circulates among users and sellers, reproduced because it is what people actually follow — not because it has been tested. No trial established these doses, this interval or this duration, and nobody is checking what is in the vial. Treat every number below as an assertion, not a finding.

Weeks 1-4 to 80.1-0.25 ml of reconstituted blend per injection, once daily, subcutaneously or intramuscularly
Alternative schedulethe same volume twice weekly, on the assumption that the TB-500 fraction acts for days
After the coursea break, or a lower-frequency maintenance phase in some protocols

Both schedules circulate and they contradict each other; neither can be right for both components. BPC-157 protocols run daily in the hundreds of micrograms, TB-500 protocols a few times a week in milligrams, so a 1:1 vial puts at least one component on a schedule nobody has proposed for it. The twice-weekly version additionally depends on a TB-500 half-life claim that has never been published.

Schedules are reproduced as their source states them. Units, IU and milligrams explains why the figures are not interchangeable between products.

Reconstitution

Vial sizes
10/10 mg, 5/5 mg
Solvent
bacteriostatic water (0.9% benzyl alcohol)
Storage
Reconstituted at 2-8 °C, protected from light; the customary three to four weeks is a convention rather than a stability finding for this mixture. Powder frozen and dark.

Worked example

A 20 mg vial (10 mg BPC-157 + 10 mg TB-500) with 4 ml bacteriostatic water gives 2.5 mg/ml of each. 0.1 ml, which is 10 units on a U100 insulin syringe, then contains approximately 0.25 mg BPC-157 and 0.25 mg TB-500 — and there is no way to give more of one without giving more of the other. A 10 mg vial (5 mg + 5 mg) in 2 ml gives the same 2.5 mg/ml.

Do not shake; let the water run down the wall of the vial and swirl gently. No published stability data exist for the two peptides in shared solution.

Safety

Side effects

  • Injection site reactions: pain, redness, swelling
  • Reported anecdotally for BPC-157: anxiety, whole-body itching, fatigue, nausea, headache, dizziness
  • Reported anecdotally for TB-500: transient fatigue, light-headedness shortly after injection, a flu-like feeling
  • Transient blood pressure changes are plausible given BPC-157's effects on the nitric oxide system 3
  • Immunogenicity — the FDA named this as a risk for both BPC-157 and the LKKTETQ fragment specifically when it placed them in category 2 of the interim 503A bulks list 4
  • There is no controlled human safety dataset for the combination or for either component 12; the short list above reflects missing research, not demonstrated safety
  • Any reaction to the blend is unattributable, because both compounds arrive at once

Do not use if

  • Active or previous malignancy. This is the strongest concern and it applies to both components: BPC-157's angiogenic mechanism 13, and raised thymosin beta-4 expression, which has been associated with cell migration, invasiveness and metastasis in several tumour types. Two pro-angiogenic, pro-migratory agents together compound a concern that is already the most frequent objection to each of them alone 2.
  • Pregnancy and breastfeeding: no data 2
  • Children and adolescents: no data 2
  • Competitive athletes under the WADA code: both components are on the prohibited list and no therapeutic use exemption exists for unapproved compounds. The US Department of Defense flags BPC-157 to service members on the same basis — a prohibited peptide and an unapproved drug found in products sold as health and wellness supplements 5
  • Any situation in which it matters to know which compound produced an effect

Interactions

Not systematically studied, and the interaction between the two components themselves has never been examined despite being the whole premise of the product 2. Theoretically conceivable: additive angiogenic effects 1; interaction between the BPC-157 fraction and nitric oxide-active drugs such as nitrates, PDE5 inhibitors and antihypertensives 3; caution with anticoagulants or antiplatelet agents given the angiogenic activity 1. This is reasoning from mechanism, not established fact.

Sources