KPV Reconstitution Calculator
KPV has never been studied in a human, at any dose, by any route, for any indication. There is no published human pharmacokinetics, no bioavailability figure for any route, no dose-finding study and no controlled trial, so this page states no dose. It is the C-terminal tripeptide of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, sold at once as an oral capsule, a troche, an injection, a nasal spray and a topical, on an assumption of equivalence between those routes that nothing published supports. The literature behind all of it is in-vitro and rodent work, much of it about delivery rather than dosing. No regulator has approved it; an FDA advisory committee recommended it for the 503A bulk-substances list in July 2026, which governs what compounding pharmacies may use as a starting material and carries no finding of efficacy or of a dose. The calculator below converts a vial size and a mixing volume into mg/ml and U-100 syringe units, which is arithmetic about a vial rather than a dose.
Curated by Dosavy from published literature and regulator labels. Published 11 September 2026, last reviewed 11 September 2026. No clinician reviews this page.
No established human dose
No human trial has established a dose for KPV. There is no evidence-based dose to give, and this page does not give one.
The calculator below converts a vial size and a mixing volume into a concentration. That is arithmetic about the vial, not a recommendation about what to inject.
Enter a target dose above to see the draw.
What the evidence says
KPV has not been studied in humans at any dose. The published literature is entirely in-vitro and rodent, and much of it is about delivery rather than dosing.
What exists: NF-κB inhibition and suppression of IL-8/eotaxin in immortalised human bronchial epithelial cells, with the importin-α/p65 mechanism worked out in cell culture (PMID 22837805); murine colitis and colitis-associated cancer models in which KPV is delivered via the PepT1 transporter (PMID 27458604) or via drug-loaded nanoparticles targeted to the colon (PMID 19909746); a rat TNBS colitis model using a self-cross-linked hydrogel to hold the peptide at the mucosa (PMID 34547895); a KPV-binding double-network hydrogel for the inflamed colon (PMID 35245681); a mucoadhesive hydrogel for chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis (PMID 34846053); corneal epithelial wound healing in an animal model (PMID 16965771); and antipyretic effect in the rabbit (PMID 6333677). Reviews of α-MSH-derived tripeptides describe KPV as a candidate for anti-inflammatory therapy, still at the preclinical stage (PMIDs 21222263, 18612139, 41209547).
Why that yields no range. Most of these studies exist because unformulated KPV does not reach the inflamed tissue on its own: the experimental variable is the carrier, not the dose. Doses reported are per-kilogram rodent amounts or per-gram-of-hydrogel loadings and are not convertible to a human capsule. The only human tissue work is ex-vivo: transdermal iontophoretic delivery across microporated human skin (PMID 28343991), which reports permeation flux, not a therapeutic dose, and a stability-indicating HPLC assay in skin homogenates (PMID 25298219).
There is no human pharmacokinetic study, no bioavailability figure for any route, no dose-finding study and no controlled trial. The oral 250-600 mcg figures that clinics dispense are a market convention with no derivation from human data, and because no route-to-route conversion has ever been measured, the subcutaneous figures circulating alongside them are less supported still.
KPV at a glance
- Category
- Healing peptide
- Half-life
- Not established
- Routes
- Oral, Topical, Subcutaneous
- Regulatory status
- Research use only
- Also sold as
- Lys-Pro-Val, lysine-proline-valine, α-MSH (11-13), alpha-MSH 11-13
Mechanism
KPV is the C-terminal tripeptide of α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH 11-13). It retains most of α-MSH's anti-inflammatory activity while lacking the sequence needed to bind any known melanocortin receptor, so it produces no pigmentary effect, and its action is not receptor-mediated in the usual sense. In human bronchial epithelial cells it enters the nucleus, stabilises IκBα and blocks nuclear import of p65 RelA by competing at the importin-α binding site, suppressing NF-κB signalling, MMP-9 activity and IL-8/eotaxin secretion. In the gut it is a substrate of the peptide transporter PepT1, which is upregulated in inflamed colonic epithelium, the basis for the claim that it concentrates where inflammation is. All of this is in-vitro and rodent work; no mechanistic or pharmacokinetic study in a living human has been published.
Reconstitution
Oral capsules and troches require no preparation. Powder sold for injection is reconstituted with bacteriostatic water; note that the oral doses clinics dispense were not established for the injectable route and there is no published bioavailability figure to convert between them, so treating an oral microgram figure as an injectable one has no basis.
Storage
Oral capsules and troches are stored at room temperature, dry and away from light, per the dispensing pharmacy. Lyophilised powder sold for injection or compounding has no approved product behind it and therefore no validated shelf life.
Frequency in practice
No established regimen exists. Clinics and sellers most commonly dispense a once-daily oral capsule or troche taken on an empty stomach; subcutaneous use at similar microgram amounts is widely described in content articles but published by far fewer operators.
Regulatory
Not FDA-approved for any indication and not approved by any comparable regulator. The practice record for this compound notes that an FDA advisory committee recommended KPV for the 503A bulk-substances list in July 2026. That is a recommendation about what compounding pharmacies may legally use as a starting material, not an approval, and it carries no finding of efficacy or of an appropriate dose. Otherwise supplied research-use-only. KPV appears in 2026 reviews of peptides used in recreational and professional sport as one of the synthetic fragments promoted for recovery and anti-inflammatory effects.
What to know before anything else
Not approved for human use and never tested in a human trial, at any dose, by any route, for any indication. There is no published human pharmacokinetics and no dose-finding study.
The 250-600 mcg oral figures clinics dispense are not derived from human data. Most of the rodent work behind them uses colon-targeted hydrogels, nanoparticles or transporter-mediated delivery systems designed specifically because plain KPV does not reach the target tissue well, so an unformulated capsule is not the thing that was studied.
KPV works by suppressing NF-κB, a central regulator of the immune response. What sustained, unmonitored suppression does in a person, including whether it blunts the normal response to infection, has not been characterised.
A single tripeptide sold simultaneously as an oral capsule, a troche, an injection, a nasal spray and a topical is being dosed on the assumption that these routes are equivalent. Nothing published supports that assumption, and the ex-vivo skin-permeation work that exists reports flux across microporated skin, not a therapeutic dose.
Supply is unregulated and mislabelling and contamination are documented problems in the peptide market; a vial or capsule labelled KPV has no verified identity or purity.
KPV questions
Is there an established human dose for KPV?
No, and the gap is total rather than partial. KPV has never been given to a human in a published study, so there is no pharmacokinetic data, no bioavailability figure and no dose-finding work to derive a dose from. The oral figure that circulates online is a market convention among clinics and sellers, not a finding.
What does KPV do, and how?
It is the C-terminal tripeptide of α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH 11-13). It keeps most of that hormone's anti-inflammatory activity while lacking the sequence needed to bind any known melanocortin receptor, so it produces no pigmentary effect and its action is not receptor-mediated in the usual sense. In human bronchial epithelial cells it enters the nucleus, stabilises IκBα and blocks nuclear import of p65 RelA by competing at the importin-α binding site, suppressing NF-κB signalling, MMP-9 activity and IL-8 and eotaxin secretion. In the gut it is a substrate of the peptide transporter PepT1, which is upregulated in inflamed colonic epithelium. All of that is cell-culture and rodent work.
Why do the animal studies not produce a dose?
Because in most of them the carrier is the experiment, not the peptide amount. The murine colitis and colitis-associated cancer models deliver KPV through the PepT1 transporter (PMID 27458604) or in colon-targeted nanoparticles (PMID 19909746); the rat colitis work uses a self-cross-linked hydrogel to hold it at the mucosa (PMID 34547895); there is a double-network hydrogel for the inflamed colon (PMID 35245681) and a mucoadhesive one for oral mucositis (PMID 34846053). Those studies exist because unformulated KPV does not reach inflamed tissue well on its own, which is exactly what a capsule is. The figures they report are per-kilogram rodent amounts or loadings per gram of hydrogel, and neither converts into a human dose.
Is oral KPV the same as injected or topical KPV?
Nothing published says so. The amounts clinics dispense orally were not established for the injectable route, and with no bioavailability figure for either there is no way to convert between them, so treating an oral figure as an injectable one has no basis. The only human tissue work is ex-vivo: iontophoretic delivery across microporated human skin (PMID 28343991), which reports permeation flux rather than a therapeutic dose, and a stability-indicating assay in skin homogenates (PMID 25298219). One tripeptide sold in five formats is being dosed on an assumption of equivalence nobody has tested.
Is KPV approved or legal to buy?
It is not approved by the FDA or any comparable regulator, for any indication, and is otherwise supplied research-use-only. An FDA advisory committee recommended it for the 503A bulk-substances list in July 2026, which is a recommendation about what compounding pharmacies may legally use as a starting material rather than an approval, and it carries no finding of efficacy and no finding about an appropriate dose. KPV also appears in 2026 reviews of peptides used in recreational and professional sport, as one of the synthetic fragments promoted for recovery and anti-inflammatory effects, so competitors should check the current prohibited list themselves.
KPV or BPC-157 for gut inflammation?
Neither has an established human dose, and no study has compared them, so the question has no evidence-based answer here. KPV has never been tested in a person at all. Dosavy's BPC-157 record carries the same headline, no human trial having established a dose for it either, and that page sets out the three small human reports that do exist.
How is KPV stored, and what else is unknown about it?
Oral capsules and troches are kept at room temperature, dry and away from light, per the dispensing pharmacy. Lyophilised powder sold for injection or compounding has no approved product behind it and therefore no validated shelf life. The open safety question is the mechanism itself: KPV suppresses NF-κB, a central regulator of the immune response, and what sustained, unmonitored suppression does in a person, including whether it blunts the normal response to infection, has not been characterised. Supply is unregulated, mislabelling and contamination are documented problems in the peptide market, and this record holds no half-life for KPV.
The rest of the math
- Reconstitution calculatorThe full version of the tool above, with syringe barrel sizes and IU conversion.
- Vial longevityHow many doses a vial holds and the date it runs out.
- Cost per doseVial price against doses drawn, so two vial sizes can be compared honestly.
- Half-life and decayFirst-order clearance, time to steady state, and what remains at a given hour.
You worked out the draw. Now log this dose.
A calculator answers once and forgets. Dosavy keeps the concentration you mixed, the doses you actually took, and a reminder for the next one, with the same evidence labels you see on this page.