TB-500 is the research name for thymosin beta-4, a 43-amino-acid repair peptide present in nearly every cell and concentrated wherever healing is happening: wound fluid, platelets, injured tissue. Its clinical research program is one of the broadest of any compound in the catalogue, spanning wounds, the eye and the heart.<\/p>\n
Thymosin beta-4 is the body’s main actin-sequestering peptide. Actin is the scaffolding protein cells rebuild with, and controlling it is how cells migrate into damaged tissue, close wounds and lay down new structure. That single mechanism — mobilising the machinery of repair — is why the same molecule appears in wound, eye, heart and soft-tissue research.<\/p>\n
Venous leg ulcers are among the hardest wounds in medicine to close. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-escalation trial across eight European sites tested topical thymosin beta-4 in exactly that setting, on the strength of its documented wound-healing properties: keratinocyte and endothelial cell migration, increased collagen deposition and stimulation of new blood-vessel growth (Ann N Y Acad Sci, 2010).<\/p>\n
In a randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled trial in severe dry eye, thymosin beta-4 drops (RGN-259) reduced ocular discomfort 35.1% and corneal fluorescein staining 59.1% versus vehicle control, with better tear film and tear production — and the improvements persisted 28 days after the last drop, consistent with actual tissue repair rather than lubrication (Cornea, 2015). Phase 3 programs in dry eye and neurotrophic keratopathy followed (Expert Opin Biol Ther, 2018).<\/p>\n
After cardiac injury, adult heart muscle barely regenerates. Thymosin beta-4 research showed the peptide can inhibit heart-muscle cell death, stimulate vessel growth and reactivate the heart’s embryonic repair program — awakening progenitor cells in the adult heart (Ann N Y Acad Sci, 2010). It remains one of the most cited findings in cardiac-repair peptide research.<\/p>\n
TB-500’s research audience is largely interested in soft-tissue recovery, and there is a clinical data point here too: in a 2021 retrospective review, 87.5% of knee-pain patients reported relief after intra-articular BPC-157, given alone or with TB-500. We break down the numbers in our BPC-157 and TB-500 knee-pain analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n TB-500 is the research name for the synthetic form of thymosin beta-4. The clinical programs study the same core molecule, which is why the thymosin beta-4 research record is directly relevant to TB-500.<\/p>\n Wound healing (including a placebo-controlled venous ulcer trial), a randomized eye program that advanced to Phase 3, cardiac-repair research, and soft-tissue recovery work.<\/p>\n Sources: Guarnera G et al., Ann N Y Acad Sci 2010 (PMID 20536470); Sosne G et al., Cornea 2015 (PMID 25826322); Sosne G, Expert Opin Biol Ther 2018 (PMID 30063853); Shrivastava S et al., Ann N Y Acad Sci 2010 (PMID 20536454); Goldstein AL et al., Expert Opin Biol Ther 2012 (PMID 22074294).<\/em><\/p>\nFrequently asked questions<\/h2>\n
What is the difference between TB-500 and thymosin beta-4?<\/h3>\n
What has thymosin beta-4 research covered?<\/h3>\n