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MuscleAnimal / preclinical only

MGF (Mechano Growth Factor / IGF-1Ec)

Splice variant of IGF-1 (specifically IGF-1Ec) produced locally in muscle in response to mechanical loading. Theorized to drive satellite-cell activation and muscle hypertrophy. Heavy bodybuilding-community interest. Limited human clinical-trial evidence. NOT FDA-approved.

Educational only — not medical advice. SmartPeptide does not prescribe, diagnose, or treat. Always consult a licensed healthcare provider before using any peptide, supplement, medication, or protocol.

What the research shows

Cell-culture and animal evidence that the IGF-1Ec splice variant drives muscle satellite-cell activation distinct from systemic IGF-1. PEGylated MGF (longer half-life) has been studied in animals. No published human RCTs for performance / hypertrophy outcomes.

What's still experimental

Essentially all human use. Dosing, route, half-life management, and long-term safety are uncharacterized.

Anecdotal / community reports

Bodybuilding community use, especially intramuscular injection at training sites. Subjective benefits are heavily confounded by training adaptation.

Anecdotal reports are NOT scientific evidence. They reflect personal experience and may not generalize.

FDA approval status

Source: openFDA + DailyMed (NIH/NLM)
No FDA-approved drug label exists for “MGF (Mechano Growth Factor / IGF-1Ec)”. This peptide is not currently approved by the FDA as a finished pharmaceutical product. Any commercial product claiming FDA approval should be treated with suspicion.

Doses studied in research

Source: Published clinical trial

What published trials tested or FDA-approved labels specify. Reporting research facts — not a SmartPeptide recommendation.

⚠ HAZARD WARNING — read before considering doses below

MGF / IGF-1Ec is a splice variant of IGF-1 and shares the same theoretical cancer-risk concerns as IGF-1 LR3. Discuss with a clinician familiar with growth-factor physiology.

Community-anecdotal range — NOT a SmartPeptide recommendation

The doses below are aggregated from research-peptide community forums (Reddit, biohacker discussions). They are NOT supported by clinical trials, NOT FDA-approved, and NOT a SmartPeptide recommendation. Source purity, dose accuracy, and user-reported outcomes are unverifiable. We display this only because the information is publicly available elsewhere — visitors should absolutely consult a licensed clinician familiar with experimental peptides before any use.

Community-anecdotal — not evidence-basedBodybuilding community forums
Indication studied: Community-discussed for muscle hypertrophy at injection sites (no human RCT)
Typical
200µg
post-training intramuscular at the trained muscle · intramuscular

Short half-life — must be injected near target muscle immediately after training

Open calculator
Maximum
400µg
same protocol · intramuscular

Higher community range

Open calculator

Notes from the source: Native MGF has a very short half-life (minutes). PEG-MGF variants are longer-acting. Same IGF-1-family cancer-risk concerns apply.

Important framing: The numbers above are what published trials tested or what FDA-approved labels specify. They are NOT a SmartPeptide recommendation for you. Trial doses come paired with screening, monitoring, and clinician oversight. Always consult a licensed clinician before any peptide use.

How clinicians typically protocol this

Third-party reference · not our recommendation

Dosing phases, cycle lengths, and administration timing as listed in a compounding-pharmacy clinician reference guide. Shown so you can see what a real protocol looks like — and bring informed questions to a licensed clinician.

Third-party protocol referenceCompounding-pharmacy clinician protocol reference (Nov 2025)

Dose numbers, frequencies, and cycle lengths in this panel are extracted from a clinician-facing reference protocol distributed by a US-based compounding pharmacy in November 2025. SmartPeptide has paraphrased all descriptive text and adds no endorsement. Always consult a licensed clinician.

Additional caution for MGF (Mechano Growth Factor / IGF-1Ec)

MGF sits in the IGF-1 family — the same cancer-risk considerations apply. See hazard warning above.

Growth Hormone

Mechano-Growth Factor — a splice variant of IGF-1 studied for local muscle repair.

Protocol phases

Typical (subcutaneous)
200–400 µgpost-workout, 3–5× weekly
subcutaneous
Cycle length

4–6 weeks on / equivalent off — this is per community protocol reference; human data is limited.

Reported side effects
Injection-site reactions
Reconstitution calculator Storage & reconstitution guide
Not medical advice. SmartPeptide does not prescribe, diagnose, or treat. The protocol above reproduces dose figures from a third-party clinician reference so you can see what compounding-pharmacy guidance typically looks like — it is not a recommendation for you, and it has not been validated against peer-reviewed dose-ranging trials. Many of these compounds are not FDA-approved for human use. Work with a licensed clinician familiar with peptide therapy before considering anything here.

FDA enforcement & recalls

Live · openFDA Drug Enforcement API
No FDA enforcement actions (recalls, market withdrawals, safety alerts) on record for “MGF (Mechano Growth Factor / IGF-1Ec)”. This is the expected baseline for most peptides — the absence of recalls does NOT imply general safety, only that no formal FDA enforcement has been initiated against approved formulations.

Mechanism & targets

ChEMBL · UniProt · Open Targets

Molecule (ChEMBL)

View on ChEMBL

Live research

PubMed · ClinicalTrials.gov · Europe PMC · OpenAlex
PubMed papers
2,747
total
Human studies
0
MeSH: humans
Clinical trials
0
published
Active trials
45
489 total registered

Europe PMC — 4,876 additional records

Includes EU/UK studies and PubMed Central full-text articles. Often surfaces research weeks before PubMed indexes it.

Research volume (OpenAlex topic graph)

Total works
11,333
all years
Last 5 years
6,163
recent activity
Open access
11,117
freely readable
OA share
98%
of all works

Human clinical evidence

Semantic Scholar · AI TLDRs · influence-ranked
Semantic Scholar API is currently rate-limited.

Human-study summaries for “mechano growth factor OR IGF-1Ec OR MGF peptide” are available on Semantic Scholar but the shared free-tier API quota is exhausted right now. Try refreshing in a few minutes, or check the PubMed and Europe PMC panels above for the same literature.

Research funding & verification

NIH RePORTER · CrossRef DOI registry

NIH-funded research

U.S. National Institutes of Health
Funded projects
5
all years
Top award sum
$1.8M
aggregate USD
Years covered
5
research span
Largest active / recent grants

Publication landscape

CrossRef · DOI registry
Indexed works (CrossRef)
2,305,192
all DOIs registered
Retracted papers
0
no retractions on record
Top funders of indexed research
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China61,538 works
  • National Institutes of Health11,915 works
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China8,687 works
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science7,525 works
  • National Science Foundation7,329 works
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology6,265 works

Funder diversity is a credibility signal. Research concentrated in a single drug company's funding warrants more scrutiny than research funded across NIH, charities, and academic grants.

Preprints — cutting edge

bioRxiv · medRxiv · via Europe PMC

Preprints have NOT been peer-reviewed. They are early research shared by authors before formal validation. Treat findings as preliminary.

Showing 6 of 34 preprints indexed by Europe PMC.

Known risks

Short half-life makes systemic dosing challenging. Long-term safety unestablished. Theoretical tissue-overgrowth and cancer concerns shared with the broader IGF-1 family. Source quality verification difficult.

Reported side effects

Injection-site reactions. Anecdotal hypoglycemia rare due to short half-life and tissue specificity. Long-term tolerability poorly characterized.

FDA adverse event reports (FAERS)

Updated quarterly by FDA
No reports found in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System for “MGF (Mechano Growth Factor / IGF-1Ec)”. This is normal for research-only peptides that are not marketed as FDA-approved drugs.

What requires medical supervision

Not FDA-approved. Discuss with a clinician familiar with growth-factor physiology, given the IGF-1-family safety overlap.

Questions for your clinician

  • What's the IGF-1-family cancer-risk discussion for me?
  • Are there proven training / nutrition interventions we should optimize first?
  • How would we even verify product identity / potency?

Editorially curated references

Discussions about MGF (Mechano Growth Factor / IGF-1Ec)

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