Wolverine peptide stack: definition, doses and duration

The term "Wolverine stack" comes from forums, not from clinics. It borrowed a comic-book healing factor as shorthand for a two-peptide tissue-repair combination, and the name stuck because it is memorable, not because it is accurate. The naming problem is now a practical problem: search results cannot agree on whether the stack is two compounds or four, which means anyone following one page's protocol may be following a different protocol than the person following the next.

This page settles the definition, publishes the dose figures the Klarovel research catalog supports for each compound, and states the protocol duration. It does not adopt the register that produced the name.

Key takeaways#

• The Wolverine peptide stack refers to BPC-157 combined with TB-500. That is the two-compound reading, and it is the one most sources use.
• A minority of clinics extend it to four compounds by adding CJC-1295 and ipamorelin, which is a growth hormone pair rather than a tissue-repair pair.
• BPC-157 in the Klarovel research catalog runs from a 200 mcg starting dose to a 500 mcg ceiling, dosed one to two times daily.
• TB-500 runs from 250 mcg to 750 mcg, with a four-week loading phase at twice-weekly frequency before dropping to once weekly.
• The catalog cycle for both compounds is twelve weeks on followed by four weeks off, which is the stated protocol duration for the stack.
• Both BPC-157 and thymosin beta-4 are on the WADA prohibited list at all times, so the stack is unavailable to anyone competing in drug-tested sport.

The Wolverine stack means BPC-157 plus TB-500#

BPC-157 and TB-500 are paired because they act on different stages of the same repair sequence rather than duplicating each other. BPC-157 is a pentadecapeptide derived from a sequence in human gastric juice. Its best-characterised effect in preclinical work is on tendon: a 2011 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that BPC-157 promoted tendon fibroblast outgrowth, survival and migration through the FAK-paxillin pathway. TB-500 is a synthetic fragment of thymosin beta-4 containing the actin-binding domain, and research has shown that the actin-binding fragment alone promotes dermal wound repair in diabetic and aged mice.

The division of labour is the rationale. Research suggests BPC-157 acts locally, and it is associated with angiogenesis and fibroblast recruitment at the site. TB-500 acts systemically on cell migration by regulating actin polymerisation. One recruits and vascularises, the other mobilises. A 2021 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology sets out the wound-healing mechanism for BPC-157 in detail and notes that no toxicity has been reported across its trial history.

Where the definition fractures is on the four-compound reading. Some clinic pages fold CJC-1295 and ipamorelin into the same protocol and present all four as the Wolverine stack. Those two are growth hormone secretagogues, not repair peptides. They belong to a different mechanism entirely, and treating them as part of the same stack conflates two goals: tissue repair and growth hormone axis support.

Why BPC-157 and TB-500 are paired

The two-compound Wolverine peptide stack dosing chart#

Two peptides carry two independent dose envelopes, and neither is adjusted for being stacked. The figures below are the ones the Klarovel research catalog supports and the engine enforces as ceilings. They are ranges, not recommendations.

Compound	Starting dose	Upper bound	Frequency	Timing	Cycle
BPC-157	200 mcg	500 mcg	1 to 2 times daily	Any time	12 weeks on, 4 weeks off
TB-500	250 mcg	750 mcg	2 times weekly during loading, then once weekly	Any time	12 weeks on, 4 weeks off

Two details in that table do real work. The first is that TB-500 has a loading phase: the catalog specifies four weeks at twice-weekly frequency before frequency drops to once weekly for the rest of the cycle. Frequency changes; the dose range does not. The second is that BPC-157 is the only one of the two dosed daily, and it can be administered near the site of injury for a local effect or in the abdomen for a systemic one.

Both compounds are subcutaneous. BPC-157 has an oral route as well, which is used mainly for gastrointestinal indications rather than tendon work. Converting either figure into syringe units is arithmetic that depends on vial size and reconstitution volume, and the peptide reconstitution calculator does it more reliably than a worked example on a page.

The four-compound reading adds a growth hormone pair#

Adding CJC-1295 and ipamorelin changes what the protocol is for, and the four-compound Wolverine stack introduces a gap this page will not fill. Both are growth hormone secretagogues: CJC-1295 without DAC is a GHRH analogue, ipamorelin is a selective GHRP. Paired, they produce pulsatile growth hormone release, and the two together count as a single stacking unit in the Klarovel engine rather than two, because they are dosed as a synergistic pair at full dose.

There is human data behind both. A 2006 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism reported prolonged stimulation of growth hormone and IGF-1 secretion by CJC-1295 across two placebo-controlled ascending-dose studies in healthy adults. Ipamorelin has a published pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model from a 1999 dose-ranging trial in healthy male volunteers.

Compound	Starting dose	Upper bound	Frequency	Timing	Cycle
Ipamorelin	100 mcg	300 mcg	Once daily	Bedtime, fasted 2 hours	12 weeks on, 4 weeks off
CJC-1295 without DAC	Not published	Not published	Once daily	Bedtime, fasted 2 hours	12 weeks on, 4 weeks off

The practical consequence of the four-compound reading is a slot constraint. The Klarovel engine caps a protocol by experience tier, and the growth hormone pair occupies one slot while BPC-157 and TB-500 occupy one each. Three slots puts the four-compound stack outside the beginner tier and into the intermediate tier. Someone who has never injected a peptide will not be given all four in a first cycle regardless of what a clinic page suggests.

Protocol duration is twelve weeks on, four weeks off#

Twelve weeks is the number the catalog specifies for every compound in both readings of the stack, which is why the stack has a single duration rather than four staggered ones. Four weeks off follows. That off period is not a formality: it is what prevents receptor desensitisation on the growth hormone side and keeps the pro-angiogenic compounds from running continuously.

Injury timelines do not respect that structure, and this is the most common point of friction. Tendon remodelling runs for months. A twelve-week cycle may not span the full repair arc of a chronic tendinopathy, which is why the off period exists as a scheduled pause rather than an abandonment. The alternative, running continuously because the injury has not resolved, is the pattern the cycle is designed to interrupt.

The wider structural point is that a stack duration is a protocol decision, not a compound property. Klarovel's engine derives the on and off weeks from the catalog, then attaches a monitoring plan to the cycle. Details of how that pipeline works sit in the peptide dosage reference, which carries the same figures for every peptide in the catalog rather than only these four.

Both compounds are prohibited in drug-tested sport#

Anyone competing under an anti-doping code cannot use this stack, and the prohibition is not conditional on dose or route. The WADA prohibited list names BPC-157 under S0, the non-approved substances class, and names thymosin beta-4 and its derivatives, TB-500 included, under S2. Both are prohibited at all times, in and out of competition.

Klarovel treats that as a disclosure question rather than a filtering question. The health questionnaire asks whether someone competes in drug-tested sport, and the answer drives a compliance warning attached to the affected compound rather than a different candidate list. The reasoning is set out in the disclosures: an athlete who competes sees the same research the engine sees, with the anti-doping status stated plainly next to it.

Contraindications work differently, and they are absolute. A cancer history blocks the pro-angiogenic compounds outright, TB-500 among them, because promoting new vasculature is the mechanism and there is no dose at which that mechanism switches off. Pregnancy and breastfeeding block every growth hormone peptide, which removes the four-compound reading entirely. The full set is documented in the peptide contraindications guide.

Where the Wolverine stack fits in a protocol#

The name is worth keeping and the register is worth dropping. "Wolverine stack" is what people search, and a page that refuses the term simply fails to reach the people asking the question. What that page owes them is a settled definition, figures that trace to a source, a stated duration, and an honest blank where the data does not exist.

Two things this page cannot do. It cannot tell you whether BPC-157 and TB-500 are appropriate for your injury, your history, or your medications. And it cannot narrow a population range into a personal dose, which is the actual work. Klarovel's health questionnaire does that: contraindication screening first, then experience tier, then body weight for the compounds where dosing scales with mass. Blood work sharpens the result when someone has it and never gates the protocol.

For the underlying evidence on each compound, the BPC-157 guide and the TB-500 guide go deeper than a stack page can. The BPC-157 and TB-500 stack analysis covers the mechanism argument for combining them and what the evidence does and does not support.