Stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 can improve the healing course of spinal cord injury and lead to functional recovery in rats

Perovic D, Kolenc D, Bilic V, Seiwerth S, Sikiric P, et al. · Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research

Every treated animal improved clinically, with tail motor function recovering, no autotomy, and spasticity resolved by day 15; white-matter vacuolation and axon loss, grey-matter oedema and motoneuron loss, and the drop in large myelinated caudal-nerve axons were all reduced from day 7.

Population

Rats with a 60-second compression injury of the sacrocaudal spinal cord, followed to 360 days

Intervention

A single intraperitoneal dose of BPC 157 (200 or 2 µg/kg) 10 min after injury

Comparator

0.9% saline

Limitations

Originating network; a single-dose design with a one-year follow-up and no reported blinding of the functional assessment.