MOTS-c_Dosage, benefits & legal status

Guides for this compound

• How to Reconstitute a Peptide

  Mix peptide powder with bacteriostatic water, step by step.

• How to Read an Insulin Syringe

  Read the units, convert to millilitres, and draw the exact dose.

• mcg vs mg: The Peptide Dosing Mistake to Avoid

  Your vial says mg and your protocol says mcg. Here is the conversion and how to check it.

• How to Read a Peptide COA

  What the purity number does and does not tell you, and how to spot an edited report.

• How to Vet a Peptide Vendor

  Independent COAs, HPLC purity, and the red flags that mean walk away.

Sources

• MOTS-c and insulin sensitivity, PubMed Central
• MOTS-c, exercise and aging, Nature Communications, 2021(2021)
  The paper behind most of what is claimed for MOTS-c, and it is two studies joined at the title. The human half gave nobody anything: ten sedentary healthy young men cycled at high intensity, and their own MOTS-c rose 11.9-fold in muscle biopsies after exercise and about 1.5-fold in blood, returning to baseline within four hours. That establishes MOTS-c as something exercise produces, not something an injection reproduces. The mouse half is where the dosing happens, by intraperitoneal injection at 5 or 15 mg/kg per day, in male mice only. Old mice ran roughly twice as long and twice as far on a treadmill, and 17% of them reached the final sprint stage against none of the controls. Late-life intermittent treatment started around 24 months improved grip strength, stride length and a 60-second walking test near end of life. Three limits are worth carrying: the lifespan curve was a trend rather than a result, with median up 6.4%, maximum up 7.0% and the overall comparison at P = 0.23, and the authors say larger cohorts are needed; the cognitive tests were negative twice, Barnes maze in young mice and Y-maze in old ones, which the authors ran deliberately to check the rotarod result was not just learning; and grip strength did not improve in young mice at all.
• FDA, Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee meeting, July 23-24, 2026(2026)
  FDA brought MOTS-c before its Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee on 23 July 2026, to consider adding it to the 503A bulks list. The uses evaluated were obesity and osteoporosis. That is a long way from the exercise-mimetic and performance framing the compound is marketed on, and it is worth noticing that the regulator picked two specific disease indications rather than anything to do with fitness or ageing. Two things about the page itself. It sets out the agenda and links FDA's briefing document for each substance, but it does not record how the vote went, so it tells you what was assessed rather than what was decided. And the page notes that advisory committees give non-binding recommendations which FDA generally follows but is not legally bound to, so even the vote would not be the final word.
• FDA, bulk drug substances for compounding that may present significant safety risks(2026)
  FDA states that it has not identified any human exposure data on drug products containing MOTS-C administered by any route, and that it lacks important information about any safety issues it raises. It also cites immunogenicity risk for certain routes and complexities with peptide-related impurities and characterisation. As of the 22 April 2026 version of this page, the substance sits in the second table, headed bulk drug substances nominated but withdrawn, rather than in the live category 2 list. The nomination was withdrawn, which is not the same as being approved or cleared: FDA still publishes the safety language above, and no longer has a nomination in front of it to evaluate.

Last reviewed 14 August 2026

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