Product Overview
Inside the vial sits a 5 mg cake of lyophilised growth hormone fragment 176-191, a peptide of sixteen amino acids also catalogued as AOD-9604 or Tyr-hGH177-191. It was designed to keep the fat-mobilising part of growth hormone while leaving the IGF-1 signal out, which is the reason it is studied rather than the full hormone. This page covers what the fragment is, how it acts, the subcutaneous amounts and reconstitution maths for a 5 mg vial, the peptides it is paired with, the human trial record, and the storage rules.
AOD 9604 is the C-terminal fragment of human growth hormone, residues 176 to 191, and it is a research peptide rather than an approved medicine. The parent hormone is a large protein with many actions; the fragment keeps a much smaller set of them, and early laboratory work attributed the lipolytic signal to this part of the molecule.
What arrives is a 5 mg vial of sterile lyophilised powder, sealed for reconstitution with bacteriostatic water. Five milligrams is a large nominal amount for a peptide dosed in micrograms: at 250 mcg a day the vial covers around twenty days of research use once mixed, which is why the arithmetic in the middle of this page matters as much as the biology.
Two status facts belong here. Growth hormone fragments are prohibited in sport under WADA class S2.2.3, and urine screening uses LC-MS/MS with a 50 pg per ml detection limit, although no exact detection window for this peptide is confirmed in the sources checked. The clinical development of AOD 9604 was stopped in 2007 for insufficient efficacy, not for a safety signal, and that record is part of what you are buying into.
The proposed mechanism is beta-3 adrenergic. Raising the expression of those receptors in fat tissue is how the fragment is described as stimulating lipolysis in animal work, and that is the effect the clinical programme tried to translate into human weight loss. Human pharmacokinetics were never confirmed, and the sources checked record no half-life value at all, so the timing of a dose is set by convention rather than by a measured curve.
The second half of the mechanism is a negative one, and it is the reason this peptide exists. Full growth hormone drives IGF-1 production in the liver, and early research found that the 176-191 fragment did not produce that rise. A fragment that mobilises fat without the growth and glucose effects of IGF-1 was the commercial idea, and IGF-1 staying in the normal range is described as an expected laboratory finding rather than an outcome to chase.
Nothing in that mechanism is established in humans at a level that justifies a claim of results. The honest summary is that the pathway is plausible, the animal data are real, and the clinical endpoint was not reached.
Dosage Protocol
No approved dose exists. The bands below are the vendor research figures recorded for this peptide, and they start at the lowest sensible step because no human pharmacokinetic curve is available to reason from.
| Entry level | 250 mcg a day, subcutaneous, for 4 weeks |
| Middle of the range | 250-500 mcg a day for 4-12 weeks, taken before fasted cardio in the published routine |
| Higher end | 500 mcg a day for up to 12 weeks, the top of the vendor band |
| Female | No separate female protocol is recorded in the sources; the same research bands are all that exist |
| Administration | Subcutaneous injection in research use; some studies delivered the peptide orally |
Reconstitution sets the number on the syringe. Mix 2 ml of preserved water into the 5 mg cake and every 10 units on a U-100 barrel carries a quarter of a milligram; cut the water to 1 ml instead and that same draw holds twice as much, 500 mcg. Pick the concentration that matches the daily step you intend to use, write the date on the vial, and keep the same volume per draw so the arithmetic never has to be redone from memory.
Research Combinations
The fragment is usually one part of a research stack rather than a standalone product, and every partner below comes from the same brand. The combinations differ in what they target, not in how many compounds they contain.
Related peptides from the same line include IGF-1 LR3 and SLU-PP-332, both of which act on different parts of the same metabolic picture, and Tesamorelin 5 mg or Dragontropin for readers who want the growth hormone axis itself.
What to Expect
- Speed. Nothing appears in days. Both the mechanism and the trial data describe effects measured across weeks of consistent use, not per injection.
- The trial figure. In one twelve-week controlled study, participants on the peptide lost an average of 1.8 kg more than the placebo group.
- The later figure. A longer twenty-four week study did not show a sufficient lipolytic effect, which is the result that ended development.
- IGF-1. Levels are expected to stay within normal limits because of the fragment design, so an IGF-1 rise is neither expected nor a goal.
- Injection site. Subcutaneous use with a small volume, rotating sites; local reactions are the most frequently reported complaint.
- Context. Every published result sits inside a calorie deficit. The peptide is not described as working in a surplus.
- The limit. The record above is the whole of it. Anyone promising more than a marginal effect is going beyond the published data.
Side Effects and Research Limits
The peptide has a small side effect list, and the smallness of the list is a consequence of how little human exposure exists rather than proof of safety.
Monitoring and Research Limits
AOD 9604 is a peptide, not a steroid, so post-cycle therapy does not apply to it. It does not suppress the hypothalamic-pituitary axis and it does not aromatise, which is why no SERM or aromatase inhibitor belongs at the end of a block. What does belong is a laboratory panel if you are following the research model.
The 5 mg vial at 250 mcg a day runs close to twenty days, so a twelve-week block means several vials and careful dating of each one rather than a single mixed vial kept too long.
Reconstitution and Storage
Keep the sealed vial in the refrigerator at 2-8 degrees Celsius, in its box, until the day you mix it. Let it come to room temperature before reconstitution, wipe the stopper with an alcohol swab, and inject the water down the inside wall of the vial rather than onto the powder. Swirl it gently until the solution is clear; never shake a peptide.
Once mixed, the solution goes back into the refrigerator and is used within around 28 days. Do not freeze it, and do not leave it in sunlight or in a warm car. Write the mixing date on the label so the end of its usable life is visible, draw with a fresh needle every time, and discard the vial if the liquid turns cloudy or holds particles. Keep everything out of reach of children and dispose of needles in a sharps container.
