Protective effects of pentadecapeptide BPC 157 on gastric ulcer in rats

Xue XC, Wu YJ, Gao MT, Li WG, Zhao N, Wang ZL, Bao CJ, Yan Z, Zhang YQ · World Journal of Gastroenterology

Across two acute models and one chronic, both routes reduced ulcer area against excipient and saline controls, with inhibition ratios of 45.7-65.6% at 400-800 ng/kg (P<0.01, and P<0.05 for one 400 ng/kg arm). The intragastric route needed the higher dose: 200 ng/kg cleared significance intramuscularly in both acute models and did not intragastrically, at 32.8% and 21.1%. Intramuscular 400 and 800 ng/kg produced the same ulcer area in the indomethacin model, 7.22 mm². Continued dosing in the chronic acetate model rebuilt glandular epithelium and granulation tissue, P<0.05 at 200 ng/kg and P<0.01 above it.

Population

Rats in three ulcer models — indomethacin and pylorus ligation, both acute, and chronic acetate-induced

Intervention

BPC 157 200–800 ng/kg intramuscularly or intragastrically

Comparator

Excipient and saline controls, with famotidine as an active reference

Limitations

Ten rats per group, and every P value in the paper is against excipient or saline control. The abstract's claim that BPC-157 beat famotidine, and its claim that the intramuscular route beat the intragastric, are numerical comparisons the paper never tested. The famotidine arm ran at 40,000 ng/kg, fifty times the top BPC-157 dose, and by the intragastric route in the pylorus-ligation model it inhibited more than any BPC-157 arm — 75.7% against 21.1 to 58.2%. Independent Chinese group, and a gastric endpoint rather than a joint one; no funding statement appears.