Gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 - effective therapy of muscle crush injury in rat, given intraperitoneally or applied locally as a cream

Stable gastric pentadecapeptide BPC 157 (GEPPPGKPADDAGLV, M.W. 1419 (PL-10, PLD-116, PL 14736 Pliva, Croatia)), accelerates healing of wounds, burns as well as transected Achilles tendon and shows strong anti-inflammatory effects. BPC is effective alone, without carrier, in trials for inflammatory bowel disease, wound treatment, locally or systemically, with no toxicity reported. We hypothesize that BPC 157 may have clinical relevance as both systemic and local peptide treatment of major muscle crush injury, such as gastrocnemius muscle complex (GCC). In crushed rats (GCC, impulse force 0.4653 Ns, kinetic energy 0.7217 J, force delivered 0.727 Ns/cm2) BPC 157 (without carrier) was applied intraperitoneally (10 μ g, 10 ng, 10 pg/kg) or locally (1.0 or 0.01 µ g (dissolved in distilled water)/g commercial neutral cream) (given only immediately after injury (sacrifice at 2h) and/or once daily, final 24 hours before sacrifice (at 4, 7, 14, 21, 28, 72 days)). Assessment was functional, macroscopical and histological. BPC 157 improves muscle healing: (i) functionally (walking test – sciatic functional index, and extensor postural thrust/motor function index show significant improvement), (ii) macroscopically (less hematoma and edema, smaller limb circumference), (iii) microscopically (less inflammation and fibrosis, more regeneration). Effective at any of the investigated intervals, BPC 157 induces post-injury muscle healing promptly and then maintains the healing with full function restoration.