Description
PrymaLab · Research use only
Preloaded Autoinjector | Vesugen | 3ml Pen | 20mg
Vesugen (Lys-Glu-Asp) at 0.67% w/v, 20 mg in a preloaded 3 mL pen
Vesugen, the Khavinson tripeptide Lys-Glu-Asp (KED), is offered here as a ready solution: a preloaded pen with a 3 mL cartridge holding 20 mg of peptide, the same amount as the freeze-dried vial. The bioregulator programme in St Petersburg assigned KED to blood vessels. What has been published on KED itself is cell culture work on gene expression and differentiation markers, most of it from the developers’ own group.
Specifications
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Compound | Vesugen Lys-Glu-Asp (KED; T-38); Khavinson vascular peptide bioregulator |
| CAS number | 204271-66-9 |
| Molecular formula | C15H26N4O8 |
| Theoretical mass | 390.4 Da |
| Sequence / structure | H-KED-OH (3 residues; free N- and C-termini) |
| Contents | Vesugen: 20 mg per 3 mL pen (0.67% w/v) |
| Form | Sterile aqueous solution in bacteriostatic water (0.9% benzyl alcohol), supplied in a 3 mL glass cartridge inside a preloaded autoinjector pen fitted with a needle |
| Storage, sealed | Store at 2–8 °C in the original carton, protected from light |
| Safety data sheet | PL-SDS-180 |
What is in the pen
The pen carries a 3 mL glass cartridge of sterile aqueous solution with Vesugen at 0.67% w/v, 20 mg per pen. At the certificate’s theoretical mass of 390.4 Da that is about 51 µmol. The peptide is dissolved in bacteriostatic water containing 0.9% benzyl alcohol as an antimicrobial preservative. Vesugen itself has no hazard classification on the safety data sheet; benzyl alcohol is classed as harmful if swallowed or inhaled, a serious eye irritant and a skin sensitiser.
Keep the pen in its carton at 2 to 8 °C, protected from light, and capped between uses. Never freeze it, and discard it if the solution has frozen, changed colour or become cloudy. The freeze-dried Vesugen 20 mg vial holds the same tripeptide, and peptide pen vs vial compares the two formats in general terms.
What the research covers
The developers’ general claim is that peptides of two to seven residues enter the nucleus and change gene expression by binding histones and DNA1. For KED, the measured evidence is gene and protein expression in cultured human cells. In ageing prostatic fibroblast cultures, Vesugen raised the differentiation factors CXCL12 and WEGC1, more so in late-passage cells2. In periodontal ligament stem cells, KED on its own increased GAP43 and nestin, two proteins associated with neuronal differentiation3. Most of these papers come from Khavinson’s group, and several appeared in the Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, a Russian journal published in English.
Those are short-term culture results, and the abstracts give no replicate numbers. The vascular label comes from the programme’s naming rather than from a measured vascular effect. None of the cited studies examined blood vessels, none used an animal, and none tested KED in solution over time, so nothing in them bears on how the peptide behaves in a stored pen; the pen’s storage limits come from its safety data sheet. The Vesugen guide gives background on the programme, and the Vesugen 20 mg vial page has the full research summary, including the stem cell gene expression data.
How each lot is tested
Every lot is tested in PrymaLab’s own laboratory in Ashland, Kentucky before release: RP-HPLC for purity, LC-MS for identity, Karl Fischer titration for water, LAL for endotoxin and USP <71> for sterility. Published certificates are listed on the results page and can be checked by number and key on the verify page. The certificate covers the peptide lot used to fill the pen, not the finished solution. These are in-house results from PrymaLab Analytical, not an independent test, and the lab is not accredited to ISO 17025. The third-party testing guarantee on this page still applies: if any independent laboratory finds the wrong compound, or less than the stated purity or amount, the order is refunded and the cost of the test is reimbursed.
What the endothelial study on KED actually measured
The vascular assignment in this compound’s name has one body of primary work behind it, and it is more specific than the label suggests. Kozlov and colleagues grew primary human aortic endothelial cells from three sources: normal aorta from a 21-week fetus, atherosclerotic aorta from a 68-year-old coronary bypass patient, and restenotic aorta from a 71-year-old bypass patient4. Cultures were taken to passage three, KED was added at 20 ng/mL, and three markers were read by confocal immunofluorescence with morphometry: connexin-37, endothelin-1 and SIRT14.
The first result is the one usually left out. In the normal endothelial cells the peptide changed none of the three markers4. The effects appeared only in the diseased cultures. In the atherosclerosis cultures the gap junction protein was 3.6-fold below normal and KED raised it 1.6-fold, SIRT1 was twofold below normal and KED raised it 1.5-fold, and endothelin-1 was 2.2-fold above normal and KED returned it to the normal level4. In the restenosis cultures that protein was 6.2-fold below normal and rose 2.3-fold, SIRT1 again twofold below and up 1.5-fold, and endothelin-1 2.7-fold above normal and normalised4. A companion paper from the same cultures reported von Willebrand factor and fibronectin falling and thrombomodulin rising5.
Three qualifications belong with those numbers, and each is routinely dropped. The isoform measured is connexin-37, not connexin-43; a Cx43 effect for KED appears in a 2022 review but none of that review’s primary citations measured it. The model is diseased tissue from elderly patients against fetal control tissue, so it is not a replicative-senescence or late-passage ageing experiment, and describing it that way misstates the design. And the English abstract of a 2017 paper on the same cultures reports both markers as higher than normal in disease, the opposite direction to the Russian full text, which looks like a translation error; the fold-changes above come from the full paper rather than from that abstract.
What does not exist is an animal model. No ApoE-knockout, LDL-receptor-knockout or cholesterol-fed study of KED has been published, so the disease evidence for this compound is cell culture from three patients. Vascular function in the sense a physiologist means it, blood flow or vessel tone measured in a living animal, has not been an endpoint for KED at all, and the vascular tissue the peptide has been tested on is cultured endothelium rather than intact vessel. A separate paper reports Ki-67 up and p53 and E-selectin down for the same sequence under its research code T-386.
The three residues, and what a certificate should state
Vesugen is a synthetic tripeptide and its amino acid sequence is the whole of its identity: lysine, then glutamic acid, then aspartic acid, written H-Lys-Glu-Asp-OH. The first residue contributes the single positive charge and the two acidic residues one carboxylate each, so the molecule carries a net negative charge at neutral pH and is freely water-soluble. Mass follows from the three residues less two waters: the formula is C15H26N4O8 and the molecular weight is 390.39. PubChem records the same under CID 87571363, as lysyl-glutamyl-aspartic acid, with the research code T-38 among its identifiers.
Nothing in that composition absorbs usefully above about 220 nm, which decides what a COA can and cannot show. Purity by HPLC has to be read at 214 nm with the gradient and the detection wavelength stated, because HPLC at 280 nm is nearly blind to this peptide and an HPLC figure quoted without its wavelength is not comparable between suppliers. Ask also for an accurate mass against 390.39, for water content, and for the counterion with its percentage. At this molecular weight a single trifluoroacetate is close to a quarter of the associated mass, so net peptide content and gross weighed mass are materially different numbers. A lot-specific certificate of analysis answers those questions; a representative certificate of analysis does not.
Format changes which of those questions a buyer can still ask. A peptide vial of lyophilized powder can be sampled, split and sent out for independent HPLC on material the researcher controls. Peptide pens cannot: once the peptide is in solution every purity question resolves to a measurement taken at the fill, and peptide pens inherit an elapsed time that is rarely stated. That is the real trade in the format, and it applies to all peptide pens rather than to this compound in particular.
Where KED sits in the Khavinson range, and what it is not grouped with
Vladimir Khavinson’s programme in St Petersburg produced a family of short sequences, each assigned to an organ, and KED is the vascular member. Pinealon is Glu-Asp-Arg, assigned to the brain, and the Pinealon sequence differs from this one at a single residue. Cardiogen is Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg. Prostamax is Lys-Glu-Asp-Pro. Epithalon is Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly, the pineal member and the one with the telomerase literature. Thymalin is different in kind: a calf thymus polypeptide extract rather than a defined sequence, registered as a prescription drug in Russia. Every peptide bioregulator in the synthetic set carries the same claim shape and a comparable weight of evidence, which is modest, and no tissue-distribution study across the family has been published, so the organ names record where a sequence was isolated rather than where it acts.
Two compounds that appear beside this one in catalogues belong to other research areas entirely. BPC-157 is a fifteen-residue fragment of a gastric protein with a large rodent injury literature and no connection to this programme. KPV is the C-terminal tripeptide of alpha-MSH, studied for intestinal inflammation. Neither is a tripeptide bioregulator in the Khavinson sense, and a research peptide listing that groups all four under one heading is sorting by catalogue structure rather than by chemistry or by evidence.
Frequently asked questions
How does the pen compare with the Vesugen 20 mg vial?
Both hold 20 mg of the same tripeptide. In the vial it is dry powder stored at −20 °C and dissolved in the lab; in the pen it is already dissolved in 3 mL of bacteriostatic water at 0.67% w/v and kept at 2 to 8 °C, never frozen.
What does the certificate for the pen cover?
It covers the lot of Vesugen peptide used to fill the pen, not the finished solution inside the cartridge. The testing section on this page explains what the certificates report and where one can be checked by number and key.
Do the published KED studies apply to the pen?
Only as background on the compound. The papers describe the tripeptide in cell culture and say nothing about its stability in bacteriostatic water or in a cartridge. For the pen, follow the storage conditions on the safety data sheet.
Is the Vesugen pen for human use?
No. It is a laboratory research product, not approved for human or veterinary use by the FDA or any other authority, and nothing on this page describes using it in people or animals.
What did the endothelial cell study on KED find?
In primary human aortic endothelial cells, nothing in the normal cultures and changes only in diseased ones4. In atherosclerosis cultures connexin-37 rose 1.6-fold from 3.6-fold below normal, SIRT1 rose 1.5-fold from twofold below, and endothelin-1 fell from 2.2-fold above normal to the normal level; restenosis cultures moved further on that gap junction protein, up 2.3-fold4.
Was that an ageing or late-passage experiment?
No, and it is frequently described as one. The comparison was diseased aorta from a 68-year-old and a 71-year-old bypass patient against normal aorta from a 21-week fetus, all at passage three4. That is disease-derived tissue against fetal control tissue, not replicative senescence.
Is there an animal atherosclerosis study of KED?
None published. No ApoE-knockout, LDL-receptor-knockout or cholesterol-fed model of this peptide exists, so the atherosclerosis evidence is cell culture from three patients. Vascular function measured in a living animal has not been an endpoint for KED.
What is the molecular weight and sequence?
H-Lys-Glu-Asp-OH, three residues, formula C15H26N4O8, molecular weight 390.39, CAS 204271-66-9, PubChem CID 87571363. The lysine gives the single positive charge and the two acidic residues one carboxylate each, so the peptide is net negative at neutral pH.
What should the COA show for this peptide?
Purity by HPLC at 214 nm with the gradient stated, since nothing in the sequence absorbs usefully at 280 nm, plus an accurate mass against 390.39, water content and the counterion percentage. At this weight a single trifluoroacetate is close to a quarter of the associated mass, so net peptide content and weighed mass differ materially. Ask for the lot-specific certificate of analysis.
References
- Khavinson VK, Popovich IG, Linkova NS, et al. Peptide Regulation of Gene Expression: A Systematic Review. Molecules. 2021;26(22). DOI · PubMed
- Khavinson VKh, Linkova NS, Polyakova VO, et al. Peptides tissue-specifically stimulate cell differentiation during their aging. Bull Exp Biol Med. 2012;153(1):148-51. DOI · PubMed
- Caputi S, Trubiani O, Sinjari B, et al. Effect of short peptides on neuronal differentiation of stem cells. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2019;33:2058738419828613. DOI · PubMed
- Kozlov KL, Bolotov II, Linkova NS, et al. Molecular aspects of vasoprotective peptide KED activity during atherosclerosis and restenosis [in Russian]. Adv Gerontol. 2016;29(4):646-650. PubMed
- Bolotov II, Kozlov KL, Drobintseva AO, et al. The KED peptide regulates the synthesis of signal molecules, markers of adhesion and regulators of thrombogenesis in intact and damaged vascular endothelium [in Russian]. Molecular Medicine. 2018;16(1). DOI
- Khavinson VKh, Linkova NS, Evlashkina EV, et al. Molecular aspects of anti-atherosclerotic effects of short peptides. Bull Exp Biol Med. 2014;158(1):159-163. DOI · PubMed
Research use only
For laboratory research use only. This product is not a drug, food, cosmetic or dietary supplement, is not approved by the FDA or any comparable authority for human or veterinary use, and must not be given to people or animals. It is sold to qualified researchers and institutions, and the buyer is responsible for lawful handling and disposal.
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