Researchers at the University of Zagreb cut the sciatic nerve in rats, then tested whether the gut-derived peptide BPC-157, given at the repair site, by injection or by mouth, could improve how well the severed ends grew back together and reconnected to muscle.
In the peer-reviewed study, rats treated with BPC-157 after nerve transection showed faster axonal regrowth, denser and larger regenerating nerve fibers, and stronger electrical signals reaching the muscle than untreated rats. Treated rats also stopped biting at the numb limb, a behavior researchers use as a marker of ongoing nerve pain.
Autotomy, the self-biting behavior, is one of the few objective pain measures available in a rat that cannot describe its own symptoms, which is why its disappearance in treated animals stood out to the researchers. The work came from a single laboratory, and no human trial has tested BPC-157 for nerve injury, so the result stands as an animal finding pointing toward a mechanism, not a treatment.
Read the original study
Gjurasin et al., Regulatory Peptides, 2010 · doi.org/10.1016/j.regpep.2009.11.005
A pain behavior that simply stopped.
Source
- Gjurasin, M., Miklic, P., Zupancic, B., Perovic, D., Zarkovic, K., Brcic, L., Kolenc, D., Radic, B., Seiwerth, S., & Sikiric, P. (2010). Peptide therapy with pentadecapeptide BPC 157 in traumatic nerve injury. Regulatory Peptides, 160(1-3), 33–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regpep.2009.11.005