Carl read the papersWhat it actually is
Cartalax is a synthetic tripeptide, Ala-Glu-Asp (AED), from the short-peptide bioregulator programme run by Vladimir Khavinson's group at the St Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. Older papers call it by a lab code, T-31.
It is marketed as the cartilage and bone member of the family, the joint equivalent of what Bronchogen is to the lungs. In Russia it is registered as an oral dietary supplement, not a medicine. The research powder sold elsewhere is the same three amino acids in a vial.
How it’s thought to work
- Gene expression (proposed) — The family premise: very short peptides reach the cell nucleus and nudge gene activity. For AED that rests on cell culture and computer modelling, not measurements in people.
- Skin fibroblasts — In ageing skin fibroblast cultures it raised sirtuin-1, sirtuin-6 and collagen I, and cut the collagen-degrading enzyme MMP-9.
- Cell renewal markers — In ageing kidney cell cultures it pushed proliferation up and the ageing markers p16, p21 and p53 down.
- Cartilage and bone — Two 2023 papers from the developing institute report that AED brought ageing markers in chondrocytes back toward normal and switched on cartilage genes (SOX9, aggrecan, type II collagen) in ageing stem cells. Add the patent's rat cartilage explants and one rat bone-density study.
What the research says
Thin, and all of it in a dish, in rats or in a patent. The PubMed papers on AED are cell-culture work from the developing institute and its collaborators: skin fibroblasts, kidney cells, stem cells and, since 2023, chondrocytes, where it nudged ageing markers back toward normal. The knee story rests on the developer's 2007 Russian patent, which reports a 26% growth increase in rat cartilage explants and a small knee osteoarthritis group: 29 patients, 17 injected with AED and 12 with saline. Pain and joint movement improved in 54.5 to 62.7% of the treated patients, the X-rays showed no real change, and the patent never says how the saline group did. That is a patent filing, not a peer-reviewed trial. A 2023 review from the same institute says AED also helped older people with osteoarthritis when taken by mouth, but we could not find that study published. A rat osteoporosis study found T-31 protected bone density, though a cartilage-tissue extract did better. And in one ageing thymus-cell study, AED was one of the peptides that didn't show a broad effect.
- Khavinson-family tripeptide (AED), sold as the cartilage and joint bioregulator.
- Published work is cell culture and rats: skin fibroblasts (sirtuins and collagen I up, MMP-9 down), kidney and stem cells, ageing chondrocytes (2023), plus one rat bone study.
- The knee osteoarthritis data (29 patients, 12 of them on saline) is in the developer's patent, not a journal, and the saline group's results aren't reported.
- No registered trial on ClinicalTrials.gov and no independent replication found.
Reported protocols
These are the doses the peptide community actually reports running (Reddit & forums), alongside published research — logged for education, not as a recommendation to use.
| Parameter | Commonly reported range |
|---|---|
| Community dose | Not established. We found no vendor-independent user reports to base a number on. Figures on seller pages vary widely and are not data. |
| Developer's patent | Claims 0.01 to 100 mcg per kg at least once daily, by injection into muscle. That is a patent claim, not a tested human dose range. |
| Russian product | Sold in Russia as an oral capsule supplement. The registry entry we checked lists the amino acids but not the amount per capsule. |
| Grey-market vials | Sold as research-use-only powder. No study links any vial size to a human dose. |
| Carl's note | If a page gives you a confident Cartalax dose, ask what it is based on. The honest answer right now is nothing published. |
Common use cases
| Goal | Community protocol notes |
|---|---|
| Joint and cartilage support | the marketed use; backed by a patent, rat explants and 2023 cell work, not trials |
| Skin ageing | where most of the published cell work actually sits (fibroblasts, collagen I, sirtuins) |
| As part of a bioregulator set | alongside Epithalon, Bronchogen and the rest of the family |
Mixing it (reconstitution)
Freeze-dried peptides must be reconstituted with bacteriostatic water before they can be measured. Carl’s calculator turns “mg in the vial + ml of water + target dose” into “units on the syringe” — and tells you how long the vial lasts.
→ Open the Reconstitution Calculator
Injection & handling
There is no established injectable dose for Cartalax. The developer's own work used injections: under the skin and into muscle in rats, and into muscle in the patent's knee group. The product sold in Russia is a capsule you swallow. The argument that a tripeptide gets absorbed through the gut rests on computer docking of gut transporters, not measured blood levels. Anyone using grey-market powder anyway is guessing at the amount. The minimum is bacteriostatic water, sterile technique, and keeping the reconstituted vial in the fridge.
Stacks it appears in
- With other bioregulators — Usually sold as part of the Khavinson set. Epithalon and Bronchogen are the best-known members.
- With BPC-157 or TB-500 — Turns up in joint and tendon talk next to them. No study has tested any of these combinations, and SAHPRA names both as examples of illegally marketed peptides.
Sources
- NCBI MeSH: alanyl-glutamyl-aspartic acid [Supplementary Concept]
- Khavinson et al. 2022, Transport of biologically active ultrashort peptides using POT and LAT carriers (Int J Mol Sci)
- Khavinson et al. 2021, Peptide regulation of gene expression: a systematic review (Molecules)
- Patent RU2299741C1: peptide normalising metabolism in bone and cartilage tissue (Khavinson et al.)
- Lin'kova et al. 2016, Peptide regulation of skin fibroblast functions during ageing in vitro
- Fridman et al. 2020, KE and AED peptides in human skin fibroblasts during replicative ageing
- Ashapkin et al. 2020, Gene expression in human mesenchymal stem cell ageing cultures modulated by short peptides
- Khavinson et al. 2014, Tripeptides slow down ageing in renal cell culture (Russian)
- Povorozniuk et al. 2007, Peptide regulators and bone tissue in ageing rats (Russian)
- Myakisheva et al. 2023, Peptides prevent the ageing-associated secretory phenotype of chondrocytes (Russian)
- Myakisheva et al. 2023, Peptides and chondrogenic differentiation of ageing human mesenchymal stem cells (Russian)
- Myakisheva et al. 2023, Chondrocyte ageing phenotype in osteoarthritis and peptide bioregulation (review, Russian)
- Lin'kova et al. 2011, Peptidergic regulation of thymocytes during thymus ageing
- RLS (rlsnet.ru) registry: Kartalax, dietary supplement (BAD)
- SAHPRA, Peptide Products: Public Information (May 2026)
- WADA Prohibited List 2026 (S0 and S2.2.1)
- ClinicalTrials.gov search: cartalax
