In the realm of regenerative medicine and tissue healing, few compounds have generated as much scientific interest as BPC-157 (Body Protection Compound 157). This remarkable pentadecapeptide, consisting of a precise sequence of 15 amino acids, emerged from groundbreaking research into the protective mechanisms of the digestive system.
The story of BPC-157 begins in the laboratories of Dr. Predrag Sikiric at the University of Zagreb in Croatia during the early 1990s. Dr. Sikiric’s team of researchers were conducting pioneering studies on the protective properties of gastric juice in the digestive system. Their focus centered on a naturally occurring protein dubbed Body Protection Compound (BPC), which would later yield one of its most promising fragments: BPC-157.
The 1993 paper “A new gastric juice peptide, BPC. An overview of the stomach-stress-organoprotection hypothesis and beneficial effects of BPC” marked an important milestone in BPC research. Published in the Journal of Physiology (Paris), this study proposed a hypothesis about how stress affects the stomach and how certain peptides in gastric juice might protect organs. This publication helped establish the foundation for understanding how peptides derived from gastric juice, including what would later be known as BPC-157, could play a role in organ protection. This work opened new avenues for investigating how these peptides might function in the body’s protective mechanisms.
This research represented more than just a single finding - it proposed a broader theoretical framework for understanding how the stomach responds to stress and how certain peptides might help protect organs. The timing of this publication is significant because it came during a period when researchers were beginning to understand more about how peptides could function as signaling molecules in the body. The quick acceptance of the paper (less than two months from submission to acceptance) suggests that the research community recognized the potential importance of these findings.