Cartalax: Research Reference

Cartalax is the tripeptide Ala-Glu-Asp, one of the short peptides developed from cartilage tissue extract by the St Petersburg group. It is a small, strongly acidic, very water-soluble peptide. Its sequence carries none of the residues behind the commonest fast degradation routes, and its one aspartic acid sits at the C-terminus, where the usual aspartate ring reaction has no following residue to work with.

This reference collects what a laboratory needs to know about Cartalax as a material: how its three residues behave in the vial, what it dissolves in, how it is handled at the bench and what to do when an order arrives. Each section below has its own page.

Molecular reference

Name	Cartalax (L-alanyl-L-glutamyl-L-aspartic acid)
Also known as	AED tripeptide, Ala-Glu-Asp, T-31 peptide, Kartalax
Sequence	H-Ala-Glu-Asp-OH (AED; free N-terminal amine and C-terminal acid)
Residues	3
Molecular formula	C12H19N3O8
Molecular weight	333.29 g/mol
CAS number	85806-95-7

Formula, molecular weight, CAS number and synonyms are from PubChem (CID 87815447). The same formula, weight, CAS number and sequence appear in the specifications on our Cartalax 20 mg product page. PubChem’s synonym list for that record also contains one entry reading H-Asp-Glu-Asp-OH, which does not match the record’s own structure or name; the structure, systematic name and formula are all Ala-Glu-Asp.

Three features of that sequence explain most of its behaviour. There is no methionine, cysteine, tryptophan, histidine or tyrosine to oxidise, and no asparagine or glutamine to deamidate, so the usual fast routes are absent. The one reactive residue is the aspartic acid, and it is the last one in the chain, which matters because the aspartate ring reaction needs the backbone of the residue that follows (Geiger and Clarke, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1987). And with two acidic side chains plus the C-terminal carboxyl against a single N-terminal amine, it is strongly acidic and strongly hydrophilic, with a computed XLogP of minus 4.9.

What it is studied for

Cartalax comes from a research programme on short peptides derived from tissue extracts, and almost all of its published work is cell culture and animal research on cartilage and connective tissue. In human mesenchymal stem cells aged by repeated passage, AED activated gene expression and protein synthesis for four markers of cartilage formation, SOX9, aggrecan, type II collagen and COMP, at 200 ng/mL, while the whole cartilage polypeptide complex needed 2000 ng/mL for the same effect (Myakisheva et al., Advances in Gerontology, 2023).

A companion study characterised the ageing-associated secretory phenotype of chondrocytes, higher p16, p21, p53, TNF-alpha and IL-1 alpha with lower sirtuin-1, and reported that AED and the cartilage complex normalised the synthesis of those molecules (Myakisheva et al., Advances in Gerontology, 2023). In ageing human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell cultures, AED and two related short peptides raised IGF1 gene expression 3.5 to 5.6 fold at nanomolar concentrations and stimulated expression of the NF-kappaB gene (Ashapkin et al., Molecular Biology Reports, 2020). In ageing skin fibroblasts, AED and a related tetrapeptide inhibited MMP-9 synthesis, raised the proliferation marker Ki-67 and the renewal marker CD98hc, and suppressed caspase-dependent apoptosis (Lin’kova et al., Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2016).

A 2023 review from the same institute states that the AED tripeptide has been given by mouth to older people with osteoarthritis, but the primary report is not indexed in PubMed, so no numbers are quoted here (Myakisheva et al., Advances in Gerontology, 2023). Our fuller summary is in the Cartalax research page.

Stability

With nothing to oxidise or deamidate, Cartalax is chemically plain. Its slow routes are general backbone hydrolysis and aspartate chemistry at a C-terminal aspartic acid. The Cartalax stability page covers those routes, freeze-thaw, light and what visible changes mean.

Solubility

Two acidic side chains and a computed XLogP of minus 4.9 make it strongly hydrophilic, so it dissolves in bacteriostatic water straight away and needs no acid. The Cartalax solubility guide explains why, which concentrations dissolve cleanly and what causes haze.

Handling

Bench practice for Cartalax is mostly about keeping the solution cold, clean and labelled. The Cartalax handling page lists the steps and the common mistakes.

On arrival

What a sealed vial should look like, why it travels without an ice pack and where it goes first are on the Cartalax on-arrival page.

Storage and reconstitution

Fridge and freezer windows, before and after mixing, are on how long Cartalax lasts. Water volumes and the concentration table for a 20 mg vial are on how much bacteriostatic water for a Cartalax 20 mg vial.

FAQ

Short answers to the questions researchers ask most about storing, mixing and handling Cartalax are on the Cartalax FAQ.

Where to get it

Vistara Labs supplies Cartalax 20 mg as a lyophilised vial for laboratory research, shipped within Canada by Canada Post Xpresspost. There is no Cartalax nasal spray. Certificates are on our lab reports page. Related short peptides from the same programme are covered in the Pinealon and Epitalon research references.