Overview
Mechano-Growth Factor (MGF / IGF-1Ec) is a locally expressed splice variant of IGF-1 that is produced by muscle tissue in response to mechanical overload and resistance training.
What problem it targets: It targets acute muscle tears, delayed post-workout recovery, severe localized muscle trauma, and plateaued muscle repair.
What It Does
• Activates muscle satellite stem cells: Mobilizes dormant satellite cells, triggering their proliferation and migration directly into damaged muscle fibers to initiate repair.
• Accelerates initial muscle repair phase: Serves as the immediate, local "first responder" to mechanical damage before general systemic IGF-1 takes over tissue maturation.
• Reduces localized muscle cell death: Protects damaged muscle tissue from secondary necrotic cell death following intense training strain.
• Realistic expectations: Natural, un-pegylated MGF has an extremely short biological half-life (a few minutes) and acts locally; it must be injected directly into the damaged muscle immediately post-workout.
Reconstitution
| Vial Size | BAC Water / Solvent | Concentration |
|---|---|---|
| 2 mg | + 2 mL | 1 mg/mL |
Reconstitution Calculator
Enter the vial amount and diluent volume to calculate concentration. If you already have a target amount, you can also convert it to liquid volume and syringe markings. This tool does not recommend a target amount.
Enter a target amount you already have and select the syringe capacity.
Mathematical reference only. The calculator does not determine an appropriate target amount. Syringe capacity only changes the maximum volume that fits.
Solubility & Preparation Notes
MGF is a splice variant derived from the IGF-1 gene containing hydrophobic sequence segments. Standard MGF powder can resist dissolving and precipitate in plain neutral water.
Solution: Adding a small amount of dilute acetic acid first helps dissolve the cake cleanly before topping off.
Protocol
| Phase | Frequency | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training days | Post-workout | 200–400 mcg | IM directly into the trained muscle within 5–10 min of the last set (half-life is minutes). |
| Off days | – | – | No benefit off training days for native MGF, the stimulus is the workout. |
run during training blocks, 6–8 weeks, then break.
immediately post-workout, local to the worked muscle; this is the whole point of native (non-PEG) MGF. Note: if you want a wider dosing window or systemic effect, use PEG-MGF instead.
A local IGF-1 splice variant, like the GH axis, women may respond at a slightly lower dose. Efficacy contested; avoid in pregnancy.
Handling & Stacking
- Freeze-dried: -4°F.
- Reconstituted: 36–46°F, best used within ~2–3 weeks (structure-based estimate), away from light; a small linear peptide with no PEG shielding, so slightly shorter than the default.
- Enhanced local recovery and hypertrophy in the trained muscle over a training block.
- Effects are local and modest, not dramatic.
- Supply math 2mg → 4 vials (8-wk @ 200 mcg, ~4 training days/wk)
Safety & Patient Education
- Efficacy is contested, a rigorous two-lab replication (Fornaro 2014) found the MGF peptide failed to affect muscle-cell proliferation or differentiation, questioning whether it has a real physiological effect.
- Treat benefits as unproven.
- IGF-family growth signaling, theoretical tumor-promotion concern Local, short-acting; benefit is limited to the injected muscle Limited human data; quality varies, request a COA
- IGF-1 if used heavily or stacked with GH-axis peptides Age-appropriate cancer screening if used long-term Out of range?
- If you stack it with GH-axis peptides, IGF-1 above your age range = too much growth signal → back off.
