There is no established KPV dosage, because no human trial of KPV has ever been published. The mouse studies gave a concentration in drinking water, which is not a dose in the first place.
The short version
No human trial of KPV exists. We checked the clinical-trial index directly. Every hit is a false match. The mouse work used 100 µM of KPV in drinking water for 8 days. The cell work used 10 nM. Neither is an amount given to an animal.
KPV is the last three residues of alpha-MSH: lysine, proline, valine. It carries the anti-inflammatory part of the parent hormone without the pigmentation part. The biology is genuinely interesting. The dosing record is empty.
What the KPV studies administered
| Study | Species | Dose | Route | Duration | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dalmasso et al., 2008 | Human intestinal and T-cell lines | 10 nM | In vitro, culture medium | — | — |
| Dalmasso et al., 2008 | Mouse (C57BL/6, DSS colitis) | 100 µM in drinking water | Oral, in the water supply | 8 days | 10 per group |
| Dalmasso et al., 2008 | Mouse (TNBS colitis) | 100 µM | Oral | — | — |
| Kannengiesser et al., 2008 | Mouse, two colitis models | — | — | — | — |
| Sun et al., 2021 | Rat (TNBS colitis), hydrogel-stabilized KPV | — | — | — | — |
A dash means we have no sourced figure for that cell and have not estimated one.
Two of those rows are dashes across the board. Both papers are real and both report anti-inflammatory effects.
KPV showed significant anti-inflammatory effects in 2 murine models of colitis.
Kannengiesser et al., Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, 2008That is the finding, and it is a real one. What the reachable record does not give is the amount behind it, so we publish the result and leave the dose cell empty.
Has KPV been tested in humans?
No. We did not take that on trust. We searched the clinical-trial index for KPV and read every record it returned.
All seven were false positives. In each one “KPV” is a set of author initials or an institutional mail code, not the tripeptide. There is no human KPV trial to find.
That matters more than it sounds. KPV is sold widely and discussed as though a dosing convention exists. It does not rest on a trial that produced a disappointing result. It rests on nothing.
Why 100 micromolar is not a dose
The mouse experiment put KPV in the drinking water at a fixed concentration. The researchers controlled the water, not the intake.
So the amount each mouse received depends on how much it drank. Colitis changes how much an animal drinks. The paper reports the concentration because the concentration is what the experiment held constant.
This is why the KPV charts are worse than the BPC-157 ones. With a rodent milligram-per-kilogram figure you can at least point at the wrong conversion being used. With a drinking-water concentration there is no arithmetic to get wrong, because there is no per-animal amount in the paper to start from. A milligram figure presented as “the research dose” did not come from this literature.
KPV
The tripeptide studied across the colitis literature reviewed here. Research use only — supplied with a batch-matched certificate of analysis.
What the studies did establish
The mechanism work is solid, and worth separating from the dosing question.
- Transport. KPV is taken up by PepT1, a peptide transporter that colonic tissue expresses more of when inflamed. That is a real route into the cells that matter.
- Signaling. At nanomolar concentrations KPV suppressed NF-kappaB and MAP kinase activation in human intestinal cells.
- Model effect. Colitis severity fell in two independent murine models, reported by two separate groups.
Nanomolar concentrations of KPV inhibit the activation of NF-kappaB and MAP kinase inflammatory signaling pathways.
Dalmasso et al., Gastroenterology, 2008Read that sentence closely. It reports a concentration at which something happened in a cell, which is exactly the right claim for the experiment run. It is not an amount, and it was never offered as one.
- A concentration describes the fluid a cell or an animal sits in.
- A dose describes what one body received.
- Only the second one scales, and only by surface area, and only into a Phase 1 starting point.
None of that produces a dose. A mechanism tells you what a compound does to a cell at a concentration. A dose-finding trial tells you what amount to give a person, and KPV has never had one. The complete guide and the colitis research readout go through the evidence itself.
What if you already have a number?
If you are holding a KPV figure already, it did not come from the published record, because the published record contains no per-animal amount.
Turning a figure into a syringe volume is arithmetic, and the peptide calculator does it from the vial strength and the volume of diluent. That part always works.
Which is the trap. A calculator converts an unsourced number as cleanly as a sourced one. The output looks equally precise either way.
What can actually be checked
One thing, and it is the only part of this compound with a definite answer. Whether the vial holds KPV at the stated purity is testable.
A batch-matched certificate of analysis showing HPLC purity and mass-spec identity settles it. KPV is only three residues, so identity by mass is unambiguous. How to read a COA covers what to look for, and where to buy KPV covers sourcing.
The peptide dosage chart puts KPV beside every other compound in this library, sourced the same way.
KPV
Research-use-only material, sold by the vial with batch documentation. Check the certificate of analysis against the batch you receive.
What to know now
- No human KPV trial has been published. We searched the clinical-trial index and read all seven hits; every one was a false match.
- The mouse studies used 100 µM KPV in drinking water over 8 days, with 10 animals per group.
- The cell work used 10 nM in culture medium.
- A drinking-water concentration has no per-animal amount, so it cannot be scaled to a person even incorrectly.
- KPV is carried into inflamed colonic tissue by PepT1, which is the strongest part of the case for it — and is a mechanism, not a dose.
What we're watching
A registered Phase 1 in ulcerative colitis would change this page. The oral route and the PepT1 transport story make an enteric-delivery trial the obvious first test, and the hydrogel work points the same way.
We would also want a paper that reports intake per animal rather than water concentration. That single change would give the field its first convertible number.
Frequently asked questions
What is the correct KPV dosage?
There isn't an established one. No human trial of KPV has been published, so no human dose has ever been measured. Any milligram figure in circulation was reconstructed rather than reported.
Has KPV been tested in humans?
No published clinical trial exists. A PubMed search filtered to clinical trials returns only false positives, where KPV is an author's initials or a mailing code rather than the tripeptide.
What doses did the KPV studies use?
Dalmasso and colleagues used 10 nM in cell culture and 100 µM of KPV in the drinking water of mice with colitis, over 8 days. That is a concentration in water, not an amount given to an animal.
Can a drinking-water concentration be converted into a dose?
Not reliably. The amount an animal receives depends on how much it drinks, which colitis itself changes. The study reported the concentration because that is what it controlled.
Why is KPV usually discussed alongside BPC-157?
Both are short peptides marketed for gut inflammation, and both have a preclinical literature with no dose-finding trial behind it. The evidence gap is the same shape in each case.
References
- Dalmasso, G., Charrier-Hisamuddin, L., Nguyen, H. T., et al. (2008). PepT1-mediated tripeptide KPV uptake reduces intestinal inflammation. Gastroenterology, 134(1), 166–178. https://doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2007.10.026
- Kannengiesser, K., Maaser, C., Heidemann, J., et al. (2008). Melanocortin-derived tripeptide KPV has anti-inflammatory potential in murine models of inflammatory bowel disease. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, 14(3), 324–331. https://doi.org/10.1002/ibd.20334
- Sun, J., Xue, P., Liu, J., et al. (2021). Self-Cross-Linked Hydrogel of Cysteamine-Grafted γ-Polyglutamic Acid Stabilized Tripeptide KPV for Alleviating TNBS-Induced Ulcerative Colitis in Rats. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 7(10), 4859–4869. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00792
- Gravina, A. G., Pellegrino, R., Durante, T., et al. (2023). The Melanocortin System in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: Insights into Its Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potentials. Cells, 12(14), 1889. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells12141889
- Mendias, C. L., & Awan, T. M. (2026). Safety and efficacy of approved and unapproved peptide therapies for musculoskeletal injuries and athletic performance. Sports Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-026-02437-0
The clinical-trial index search described above was run against PubMed's clinical-trial publication-type filter. All seven results were false matches on the letters KPV.