Comment; If we can figure out the best ways to use this, learn more about what other things it does, it could be a great tool to promote healing.
Chung-Hsun Chang, Wen-Chung Tsai, Miao-Sui Lin, Ya-Hui Hsu, and Jong-Hwei Su Pang01 MAR 2011https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00945.2010
Abstract
Pentadecapeptide BPC 157, composed of 15 amino acids, is a partial sequence of body protection compound (BPC) that is discovered in and isolated from human gastric juice. Experimentally it has been demonstrated to accelerate the healing of many different wounds, including transected rat Achilles tendon. This study was designed to investigate the potential mechanism of BPC 157 to enhance healing of injured tendon. The outgrowth of tendon fibroblasts from tendon explants cultured with or without BPC 157 was examined. Results showed that BPC 157 significantly accelerated the outgrowth of tendon explants. Cell proliferation of cultured tendon fibroblasts derived from rat Achilles tendon was not directly affected by BPC 157 as evaluated by MTT assay. However, the survival of BPC 157-treated cells was significantly increased under the H2O2 stress. BPC 157 markedly increased the in vitro migration of tendon fibroblasts in a dose-dependent manner as revealed by transwell filter migration assay. BPC 157 also dose dependently accelerated the spreading of tendon fibroblasts on culture dishes. The F-actin formation as detected by FITC-phalloidin staining was induced in BPC 157-treated fibroblasts. The protein expression and activation of FAK and paxillin were determined by Western blot analysis, and the phosphorylation levels of both FAK and paxillin were dose dependently increased by BPC 157 while the total amounts of protein was unaltered. In conclusion, BPC 157 promotes the ex vivo outgrowth of tendon fibroblasts from tendon explants, cell survival under stress, and the in vitro migration of tendon fibroblasts, which is likely mediated by the activation of the FAK-paxillin pathway.
tendon injury is one of the most common injuries in sport activities. Tendon is composed of cells (tendon fibroblasts) and extracellular matrix, which contains type I collagen mostly, type III collagen, and glycoproteins. Most tendon injuries result from the tear of tendon fibers due to overuse or aging. The injury can happen gradually or suddenly. Healing ability of the ruptured tendon can be poor. Surgical repair of the completely torn tendon is often important. The process of tendon healing is classified into three overlapping stages: inflammation, regeneration, and remodeling. In the regeneration stage, tendon fibroblasts migrate into the injured site, proliferate, and produce different types of collagens and glycoproteins to form the extracellular matrix (3, 17).
Many growth factors such as epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) have been used to improve the healing of torn tendon in the lab (2, 31). However, the short duration of these easily digested growth factors hampers their clinical usage. Gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 is a partial sequence of human gastric protein BPC, which has been discovered in and isolated from gastric juice (5). It is highly stable and resistant to hydrolysis or enzyme digestion, even in the gastric juice. Besides, it is easily dissolved in water and needs no carrier for its application. Experimentally it was demonstrated to enhance the healing of different wounds, such as gastric ulcer (19, 32), skin (4, 15), cornea (13), muscle (28), colon-colon anastomosis (22), colocutaneous fistula (11), and segmental bone defect (21). It was also found to accelerate the healing of transected rat Achilles tendon (12, 29) and medial collateral ligament of knee (8). Currently it is in clinical trial for treating inflammatory bowel disease (25).
The mechanism by which pentadecapeptide BPC 157 accelerates healing is not clearly understood. It has been suggested to include upregulation of growth factors (15), proangenic effects (6, 22, 27), and modulation of nitric oxide (NO) synthesis (26). BPC 157 may also control functions of collagen fragments (30). It has been shown to have a connection with bone morphogenic proteins (15, 21). However, none of these functions have been proved experimentally in tendon healing. The present ex vivo and in vitro study attempted to elucidate the potential mechanism by which BPC 157 works on tendon fibroblasts to improve tendon healing.
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