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Cartalax

Khavinson bioregulator

Also: AED · Ala-Glu-Asp · T-31 · peptide complex AC-4 · Kartalax · Карталакс

CautionRecovery & healingLongevityInjection / Oral

Khavinson's 'cartilage' tripeptide AED; only cell and patent data, yet most users report less joint pain.

Safety tier
Caution
strict bar
Positive
65%
of 43 reports
Per month
≈ €40–120≈ $45–130
estimate
Rank
#1
of 86 research peptides

At a glance

Onset
Reports split: some feel less pain within an hour to three days, most within one to two weeks, others only after the course or not at all.
Lasts
Run as 10-30 day cycles, often 2-4 times a year; several users say the benefit held for weeks to months after stopping, a few that it faded within hours of each dose.
Access
Grey market
Best effects
Less knee, hip, spinal or sacroiliac pain, from within days to two weeks · quieter, less crunchy knees and fewer braces · harder or more frequent training without days of joint pain afterwards · claimed: cartilage repair and osteoarthritis treatment (patent example and manufacturer only)
Downsides
Nothing for about a quarter, especially advanced osteoarthritis · benefit sometimes fades between doses or after the course · almost always stacked, so its share of any benefit is unknown · joint flare or diffuse aching in a few · GI discomfort from the oral capsules (one buyer)
Typical use
Grey-market vials: most users take 2 mg a day subq for 10-20 days (range 0.2-10 mg), 2-4 times a year, some injecting near the joint. The developers' patent used 1 mcg-5 mg intramuscularly daily for 20 days. Capsules: 1-2 capsules twice a day with meals for 1 month, repeated after 3-6 months (manufacturer). Users report 2–2.5 mg/day (median 2 mg, n=23).
Stacked with
Stacked with
BPC-157 and TB-500: The 'Deadpool' stack, sold premixed in one vial; most of the strongest reports ran it this way or alongside KLOW, so Cartalax's own share is unknown. · KLOW or GHK-Cu and KPV: Common partners for joint and tendon pain; one user reported KLOW alone had already helped before adding Cartalax. · Growth hormone or anabolic steroids: Several glowing reports came from people also running GH, anavar or nandrolone, which ease joint pain on their own.

Safety

Watch
In the developers' cell studies AED raised IGF1 gene expression 3.5-5.6-fold in stem cells, raised the proliferation marker Ki-67 and lowered p53, p21 and p16 in ageing cells; single-group in-vitro signals of unknown meaning in people · Grey-market injectable vials: purity, sterility and identity unverified, and many listings print another peptide's sequence (AEDL)
Tier by safety barStrict CautionBalanced CautionEvidence only Clean
  • Seen harm0 of 3
  • Mechanism1 of 3
  • Data gap3 of 3
  • Silent harm1 of 3
  • Product3 of 3
Never if
Pregnancy or breastfeeding (no human reproductive data) · Active or past cancer, as a precaution given the in-vitro IGF1 and proliferation signals · Autoimmune arthritis, where one user's joints flared within days
Why each score
Seen harm 0/3
No serious adverse event is documented: the patent's 17 treated patients and 36 first-hand Reddit users report none. The bad reactions reported (a joint flare in autoimmune arthritis, a day of diffuse fibromyalgia-like aching, recurring abdominal pain after hip-flexor injections, GI discomfort from capsules) cleared and are not serious. The zero reflects limited, unsystematic exposure, not proven safety. r/Peptidesource: Cartalax side effects (abdominal pain after injection)Russian Patent RU 2299741 (29-patient example)
Mechanism 1/3
No named pathway to serious harm has been shown in vivo. The developers' cell studies show AED raising IGF1 expression 3.5-5.6-fold in stem cells and raising proliferation while lowering p53, p21 and p16 in ageing kidney and skin cells; a growth-signalling worry on paper, but single-group, in vitro only and never tested in animals, so speculative rather than credible. Ashapkin et al. 2020: AED raises IGF1 expression in stem cells (PubMed 32399807)Khavinson et al. 2014: AED and p16/p21/p53 in renal cells (PubMed 25946838)
Data gap 3/3
Registered nowhere as a drug and no peer-reviewed human safety data: the only human figures are the developers' unpublished patent example (17 injected patients vs 12 on saline) and a review's unreferenced claim of oral use in older patients. Published work is cell culture and one rat osteoporosis study. Russian Patent RU 2299741Myakisheva et al. 2023 review (PubMed 37782637)
Silent harm 1/3
With mechanism at 1, rated on the harms actually reported: joint flares, aching, abdominal pain near the injection and injection-site reactions, which are noticed within a day and stop with the course. The theoretical growth-signalling concern would be silent, but at mechanism 1 it does not set this axis. r/Cartalax: suspected fibromyalgia flare after 2 mg
Product 3/3
Almost every report injects grey-market 20-40 mg vials or premixed blends of unverified purity and sterility; Finnrick has only two unclassifiable tests, one buyer suspected a batch was 'just glucose powder', and many listings print the wrong sequence (AEDL). The Russian capsules sold as a supplement are a rarely used lower-risk alternative. Finnrick: Cartalax (two tests)Dosage Peptide: sequence confusion on Cartalax listingsMendias & Awan 2026 preprint: 6,441 grey-market peptide samples, 42-71% failed quality criteria, 15% had endotoxin

User reports

All 43 reports
Users report
Far more reported than the other Khavinson peptides, almost all from 2025-26 and almost all injected. About two thirds of 36 first-hand Reddit accounts describe less knee, hip, spine or sacroiliac pain, smoother or quieter joints and harder training, often within days to two weeks of 1-5 mg a day for 10-20 days, and several say it outlasted the course by months. Most of the strongest ones ran it with BPC-157, TB-500, KLOW, growth hormone or steroids, so its own share is unknown. A quarter felt nothing, mostly with advanced osteoarthritis or a failing hip; three had a bad reaction: a joint flare in autoimmune arthritis, a next-day fibromyalgia-like ache, and recurring abdominal pain after hip-flexor injections. Oral capsules are rarely used: one capsule user says a 30-day course ended two years of recurring back trouble, another got GI discomfort and switched to injections. Felt nothing: 8 of 36 Reddit reports.
Glowing 12Positive 17Mixed 2Nothing 9Negative 3
  • r/BodyHackGuide

    Cartalax has been the single most effective peptide I’ve ever used. I’m on day 16 of 20 days at 10mg a day. By day 3 I saw major improvements to my joints.

    • 10 points
    Glowing10 mg a day for 20 daysInjection20 days
  • r/BiohackingU

    Cartalax is amazing! I have DDD and after 2 months, 2mg per day my chronic pain is gone! I have full range of motion back and the pinched nerve is gone.

    • 8 points
    Glowing2 mg a day for 2 months, repeated after 3 months offInjection2 months, then a second cycle
  • r/Peptidesource

    I took 2mg a day for 3 months and didn't notice any difference at all. I have osteoarthritis and was hoping it helped a bit but unfortunately, nothing.

    • 6 points
    Nothing2 mg a day for 3 monthsInjection3 months

Studies

Evidence
Animal only — Peer-reviewed work is cell culture (chondrocytes, stem cells, kidney and skin cells) and one rat osteoporosis study, all from the Khavinson institute or co-authors. The only human data are an example in the developers' 2007 patent: 29 people with knee osteoarthritis given 20 daily intramuscular injections or saline, with less pain and better mobility in 54-63% and no X-ray change. Never published in a journal.
Caveat
The reports are unusually favourable for a Khavinson peptide, but they are almost all from injected grey-market vials in heavily stacked protocols, cluster in 2025-26 as vendors promoted 'Deadpool' blends, and include many people judging pain over days, where placebo is strong. The only human data are an unpublished patent example; no study has shown cartilage regrowth in people, and the patent saw no X-ray change. AED is a small acidic tripeptide with no named harm pathway, so the verdict reflects thin data rather than a credible risk, but the developers' own cell work shows it raising IGF1 expression and proliferation while lowering p53, which nobody has followed up in vivo.
5 more studies and 5 sources

Sources

Similar peptides

Research notes, not medical advice. Updated . Also as Markdown.

Sequence

The peptide's chain of amino acids from its start (the N-terminus) to its end, one bead and one letter for each: A alanine, C cysteine, D aspartic acid, E glutamic acid, F phenylalanine, G glycine, H histidine, I isoleucine, K lysine, L leucine, M methionine, N asparagine, P proline, Q glutamine, R arginine, S serine, T threonine, V valine, W tryptophan, Y tyrosine. A modification such as an N-acetyl cap or a C-terminal amide changes how long it lasts in the body. Length tells related peptides apart, from a two-residue dipeptide like carnosine to a 43-residue protein like thymosin beta-4, and predicts neither effect nor safety.

Report grades

Every first-hand Reddit or X report is graded on its own, from glowing through positive, mixed, nothing and negative to bad reaction, and the bar shows how those grades split. Posts that look vendor-adjacent stay on the peptide's page but are left out of the counts.

GlowingPositiveMixedNothingNegativeBad reaction

% positive

The share of a peptide's graded Reddit and X reports that are glowing or positive, vendor-adjacent posts left out. A peptide with few reports is pulled toward the average of all reports, as if it had eight average ones besides its own, so two glowing posts cannot top the list. Peptides rank by this figure, those with no graded report yet after those with one, and Avoid ones after every other entry.

Researcher estimate

No first-hand report of this peptide has been graded yet, so the figure is the researchers' own rating out of 10 from what they read about it. It ranks after every peptide with graded reports until its own arrive.

Safety tier

Each peptide is tiered Clean, Caution or Avoid from its five risk axes under the chosen safety bar. An Avoid peptide carries a real risk of harm, a plausible route to serious harm rather than mere unpleasantness, so it stays listed with the reason but ranks behind every other entry, however good its reviews.

Safety bar

The safety bar sets how much risk it takes to rate a peptide Avoid. Strict: out on any serious mechanism with little human data, or any documented serious harm. Balanced: out on documented serious harm (unless it is obvious, reversible and from a regulated product), or a serious mechanism whose harm would be silent with no human data at all. Evidence only: out only on documented serious harm in humans that is lasting, delayed or from grey-market product.

Seen harm

Documented serious adverse events in humans, from 0 for none despite real exposure to 3 for deaths or several well-documented serious harms. Serious means a hospital or emergency visit or harm lasting weeks, so a headache or a bad night does not count.

Mechanism

A plausible biological route to serious harm at the doses people use, such as growth-factor signalling, hormone-axis suppression, heart or blood-pressure effects or immune activation. It runs from 0 when none is known to 3 when a dangerous pathway has been shown in living animals.

Data gap

How little human safety data exists for the molecule actually sold, from 0 for an approved drug with large trials and years of use to 3 for no human safety data at all. A modified analogue does not inherit its parent's trials.

Silent harm

Whether the feared harm would show quickly or stay hidden, from 0 when it is obvious and goes on stopping to 3 when it is silent and delayed, like tumour promotion or slow organ damage. User reports cannot reveal a harm that takes years to appear, so a high score here limits what good reviews can tell you.

Product

The risk of what people actually buy, from 0 for a regulated pharmacy or supplement product taken by mouth or on the skin to 3 for a grey-market injectable. In one dataset of 6,441 grey-market samples, 42–71% failed basic quality criteria and 15% carried endotoxin; taken by mouth or in the nose, a pack avoids the injection risks.

Evidence

The strongest kind of study behind the peptide's effects, from an approved drug through human controlled trials and small human studies to animal work or nothing of its own. Animal results often fail to carry over to people.

Access

How people get it: as an approved drug, a compounded prescription, an over-the-counter supplement or from the grey market, where nobody checks the vial. The channel decides both the legal position and the risk of a bad batch.

Price per month

Thirty days of the typical dose, from its low end to its high end, priced at the listing a careful buyer would choose: in stock, from a shop scoring 4 of 5 on trust (third-party tested where no score is set), failing that 3, a pure pack before a blend, a European shop first, then the cheapest per mg. The range is the dose's, not the shops'. A per-dose amount counts once a day unless the dose says otherwise. The shop table keeps each listing's price per mg, per gram for bulk supplements. Where no listing can be priced the researchers' own estimate stands in, and says so.

Dose users report

The middle half of the daily doses stated in at least five first-hand reports, vendor posts left out. Where its middle sits more than twice above or below the declared dose, the month is priced at it as well, since what people take is what they pay for.

Shop trust

Each shop's trust on a 1–5 scale, read from its testing and its reputation: 1 for serious red flags (fabricated COAs, scam reports, impersonation, a closed shop), 2 for no public testing, a new shop or active complaints such as seized parcels, 3 for its own COAs or a short track record, 4 for verified third-party testing or a strong reputation, and 5 for third-party batch reports that name the shop, with years of good independent reputation. A shop without a score counts third-party batch testing as 4, its own COAs as 3 and no public tests as 2.

Best value

Within a category or a goal, a peptide that no other beats on both counts: none is rated more positively for the same or a lower monthly price, and none costs less for the same or a higher rating. The chart joins these into the best-value line; the cheapest of them and the best-rated of them both make it, so the line spans the trade-off from cheap to best. Avoid entries never count, and a peptide needs both a % positive and a price to be compared.

Testing

Whether the shop publishes lab results: third-party tested means an independent lab checks each batch, own COA means the shop's own certificate of analysis, and no public tests means neither. A certificate shows purity, not safety.

Added peptide

Some packs sold under one peptide's name hold a second one, such as 5 mg GHK-Cu in a nasal kit, stated only in the description. Sprayed in the nose or injected it reaches the blood like an injection, so it carries the risk of that route and is tiered as the injectable form, whatever its tier on the skin. A pack whose page gives no contents list may hold more than its name.