# MOTS-c peptide Dosage in the Research Literature, Half-Life, and Routes > MOTS-c peptide dosage as it appears in animal research: 0.5-15 mg/kg IP in rodents, no validated human half-life, IP and SC routes. Research context only, not human dosing guidance. What was administered, to which species, by which route — and where the human pharmacokinetic data simply does not exist yet. No human dosing guidance appears here. ## The gist Every MOTS-c peptide dose on this page comes from animal studies, almost all of them in mice and rats. The numbers — roughly 0.5 to 15 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, injected into the abdominal cavity — describe what researchers gave laboratory animals. They cannot be converted into a human dose, and there is no approved human dose to convert them to. There is also no measured human half-life (how long the peptide lasts in the bloodstream). This page exists to put the research figures in honest context, not to tell anyone what to take. ## MOTS-c Dosage in the Research Literature MOTS-c peptide dosage figures exist only as research doses in animals. The founding mouse metabolic work used approximately 0.5 mg/kg/day IP for chronic studies (~8 weeks) and 5 mg/kg/day IP for acute studies (7 days) [1]. Aged-mouse physical-capacity work used 15 mg/kg/day, or 15 mg/kg three times weekly, IP [2]. Bone studies have used 5 mg/kg/day IP for 12 weeks [4]. The span — roughly 0.5 to 15 mg/kg/day in rodents — is wide, route-specific, and species-specific. None of it translates to a human milligram figure. There is no FDA-approved indication, formulation, or dose for MOTS-c, so no labeled dose exists to cite [4]. Study durations ranged from about one week to twelve weeks; there is no human treatment-duration guidance. The [MOTS-c half-life](/dosage) question, below, is the clearest single reason the rodent figures cannot be scaled to a person. ## MOTS-c Half-Life and Pharmacokinetics ### MOTS-c Half-Life and Pharmacokinetics No validated human pharmacokinetic half-life for MOTS-c has been published [4]. As a small, unmodified peptide, native MOTS-c is expected to be short-lived in circulation, and the published in-vivo work relies on repeated daily or thrice-weekly dosing rather than a measured human t1/2 [2][4]. To improve delivery, researchers have engineered cell-penetrating analogues (for example, in a neuroprotection study), which is itself a signal that the native peptide's pharmacokinetics are a recognized limitation rather than a solved problem [4]. The half-life line is an evidence gap, stated plainly. ## Routes Studied: Intraperitoneal and Subcutaneous in Animals ### Routes Studied: Intraperitoneal and Subcutaneous in Animals Intraperitoneal (IP) injection — into the abdominal cavity — is the dominant route across rodent MOTS-c studies [1][2]. Subcutaneous injection has also been used in a research context, and most mechanistic work was performed in cell culture (in vitro) [3]. A cell-penetrating analogue has been used for peripheral administration in a neuro study [4]. These are laboratory routes in animals and cells; describing them is not a description of human administration, for which no approved route exists. MOTS-c is supplied for research as a lyophilized (freeze-dried) powder, with reconstitution and storage conditions that are vendor- and study-specific and not standardized [4]. ## Why the dosing figures do not transfer to people Three features of the research record make the rodent numbers untransferable. First, dose was set per kilogram of mouse or rat body weight, and allometric scaling between rodents and humans is not a simple multiplication — the founding and capacity studies were designed to test mechanism in animals, not to model a human dose [1][2]. Second, the route was almost always intraperitoneal, a laboratory route with no human counterpart, so even the delivery assumptions do not carry over [1][2]. Third, and most limiting, there is no validated human half-life, bioavailability, or dose-response to anchor any conversion [4]. The absence of human pharmacokinetics is why analogue engineering matters: because native MOTS-c is expected to clear quickly and to penetrate cells poorly, researchers have built cell-penetrating versions to study delivery at all [4]. That work underscores the point rather than solving it — the molecule that the animal dose-response describes is not yet a characterized human drug. Any milligram figure presented as a human dose is therefore an extrapolation the literature does not support. ## MOTS-c Side Effects and Safety Context No human safety trials of exogenous MOTS-c have been completed, so a clinical side-effect profile is not established [4]. All dosing and tolerability data come from rodent studies, and rodent doses (0.5-15 mg/kg/day) cannot be extrapolated to humans [4]. Two further caveats sit in the safety context. First, a pro-diabetogenic MOTS-c mtDNA variant (m.1382A>C) and ancestry-dependent exercise responses suggest the peptide's effects are not uniform across populations [4]. Second, MOTS-c sold as a research chemical is not regulated as a pharmaceutical, so identity, purity, and sterility vary by supplier [4]. The honest answer on side effects is that the human data to characterize them does not exist. ### How often do you inject MOTS-c? There is no human dosing schedule. Rodent studies used daily or thrice-weekly intraperitoneal injection (e.g., 0.5-15 mg/kg), and those frequencies cannot be translated to people [1][2]. ### Can I inject MOTS-c every day? Daily intraperitoneal dosing has been used in rodent research, but no human dosing frequency is established and MOTS-c is not approved for human use [1][4]. ### How long should you take MOTS-c? Study durations in animals ranged from about one week to twelve weeks [1][2][4]. There is no human treatment-duration guidance, because no human protocol exists. --- A depth-gauged reading of the MOTS-c mitochondrial-peptide record — the human signal logged near the surface, the preclinical findings in the mid-water, and the honest gaps left visible in the abyss, with no clinic behind the gauge and nothing here stocked, priced, or sold.