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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

No established dose range

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

No FDA-approved or established trial dose range for this peptide. Anecdotal ranges discussed in community forums exist but are not supported by published clinical trials, and SmartPeptide will not publish unverified doses.

This is the honest answer for peptides like BPC-157, IGF-1 LR3, MOTS-c, Epitalon and similar research compounds — robust human dose- ranging studies have not been published. Always work with a licensed clinician familiar with experimental peptides if you are considering any use.

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
2,734
total
Human studies
0
MeSH: humans
Clinical trials
0
published
Active trials
45
486 total registered

Europe PMC — 4,731 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
9,995
all years
Last 5 years
5,474
recent activity
Open access
9,780
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)
2,284,389
all DOIs registered
Retracted papers
0
no retractions on record
Top funders of indexed research
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China60,346 works
  • National Institutes of Health11,762 works
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China8,437 works
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science7,416 works
  • National Science Foundation7,215 works
  • Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology6,253 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 31 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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