What is Cardiogen?

What sources report

Cardiogen is a synthetic peptide of four amino acids: alanine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid and arginine (H-Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg-OH, or AEDR).² Vladimir Khavinson's group reports detecting AEDR in a polypeptide complex from heart tissue, using chromato-mass spectrometry.⁷ Its 2021 review classes Cardiogen as a "monofunctional" peptide that regulates cardiovascular function.¹

Two naming traps matter when reading about it. CardioGen-82 is an FDA-approved rubidium Rb 82 generator for heart PET imaging, unrelated to the peptide.⁶ A PubChem name search for "cardiogen" returns (-)-carnitine, CID 10917, not AEDR.¹⁵ The research itself is cell and tissue culture plus a few rat studies.³⁴ Almost all of it comes from the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology and its collaborators.²³⁴ Labs that need the compound can find Cardiogen for sale as a freeze-dried research vial.

Heart tissue in culture

• Rat heart muscle (2009): in organotypic cultures from 3-month-old and 24-month-old rats, cardiogen at 10^-12 M strongly stimulated cell growth at both ages.³ It also lowered p53, a protein linked to programmed cell death.³ The article is in Russian.³
• Rat heart explants (2006): cardiogen at 0.05 ng/ml stimulated growth of heart explants from 3-week-old and 18-month-old rats compared with untreated controls.¹³ The same study tested other "tissue-specific" peptides on lung, prostate and pancreas tissue.¹³

The heart attack data

A 2022 developer-group review describes rats whose coronary artery was tied off to cause a heart attack.⁷ Rats given AEDR had one third the deaths of controls.⁷ The review says AEDR also shrank zones of dead tissue and kept glycogen in heart muscle.⁷ For these data the review cites a US patent, not a peer-reviewed study.⁷ We could not review the patent's doses, routes or animal numbers.

Effects outside the heart

• Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (2012): AEDR raised cytoskeleton proteins (actin, tubulin, vimentin) 2 to 5 times and the nuclear proteins lamin A and C 2 to 3 times.² The authors propose this supports cell growth and limits cell death.²
• Human prostate fibroblasts (2010): in aging cultures, cardiogen and two other short peptides raised the signaling proteins CXCL12, WEDC1 and ghrelin.¹⁶ A peptide called T-38 was the most active.¹⁶
• Transplanted sarcoma, old rats (2009): cardiogen injections slowed M-1 sarcoma growth in a dose-dependent way, with bleeding-related tissue death and more tumor cell death.⁴ The authors say it was not a direct cell poison and seemed to act through the tumor's blood vessels.⁴

Proposed mechanism

In a test-tube study, AEDR and other short peptides bound wheat histone proteins H1, H2B, H3 and H4.¹⁴ The authors suggest such binding could regulate gene activity.¹⁴ Computer docking ranked AEDR among the short peptides that bind best to the cell transporters LAT1, LAT2 and PEPT1, a possible route into cells.¹⁷ Neither result has been tested in people.⁵

Related peptides

Cardiogen overlaps two other short peptides from the same group: its first three amino acids are Cartalax (AED), and its last three are Pinealon (EDR).¹ The developer group links Cartalax to cartilage and skin fibroblasts and Pinealon to nerve cells.¹ See What is Cartalax? and What is Pinealon?.

Side effects

No side effect data exist for the Cardiogen peptide.⁵ No clinical trial is registered, and the published cell and rat studies do not report adverse effects.⁵³⁴ Long-term safety, and use in pregnancy, in children, in people with heart disease or with other medicines, are unstudied.⁹⁵

One animal finding deserves attention: in the rat sarcoma study, cardiogen changed tumor behavior by acting on the tumor's blood vessels, and what that means for safety is unknown.⁴ Health Canada's 2025 advisory does not name Cardiogen.¹⁸ It warns that unauthorized injectable drugs, such as the peptides it seized, may cause infections and allergic reactions, interact with other medicines, or contain contaminants that may not be listed on the label.¹⁸ More background is in Peptide safety basics.

Dosage information

No human dose of the Cardiogen peptide is established.⁹⁵ It has no FDA-approved label and no registered clinical trial.⁹⁵ The published amounts found are tissue culture concentrations:

• 10^-12 M (1 picomolar) in organotypic cultures of rat heart tissue (2009).³
• 0.05 ng/ml in cultures of rat heart explants (2006).¹³

The rat tumor study abstract says only that cardiogen was injected, and the review of the heart attack data gives no dose, route or schedule.⁴⁷ Tissue culture concentrations are lab conditions, not guidance for people.⁹⁵ Background on how study doses are reported is in Peptide dosage basics.

Reconstitution and storage

The research vial holds 20 mg of freeze-dried powder.⁸ The supplier advises storing it in a refrigerator away from light and reconstituting it with bacteriostatic water, sold separately.⁸ It says to keep the mixed vial refrigerated and use it within 30 days; these are supplier statements, not published stability data.⁸

General guidance from peptide makers adds context. Bachem says freeze-dried peptides may be shipped at room temperature and kept in a refrigerator at 4 °C for short-term use.¹⁹ Bachem advises against storing peptides in solution, because they may slowly break down even when sterile; frozen solutions may keep for a few weeks.¹⁹ GenScript notes that peptides containing Asp, Glu or Arg tend to absorb moisture, so the vial should stay tightly capped.²⁰

Lab steps are in the reconstitution guide and How to store peptides. The reconstitution calculator handles the concentration math.

Regulatory status

The Cardiogen peptide is not an FDA-approved drug: a search of FDA's Drugs@FDA data for it as an active ingredient returned no matches in October 2026.⁹ CardioGen-82, the FDA-approved product with a similar name, is a radioactive diagnostic agent.⁶ The peptide is not on FDA's May 14, 2026 list of bulk substances nominated for 503A compounding, nor on FDA's page of bulk substances that may present significant safety risks.¹⁰²¹

A federal rule lets a drug meant only for test-tube or lab-animal research be shipped if it is labeled "Not for use in humans," and the shipper must use due diligence to make sure the recipient regularly does such research.²² In an August 2026 warning letter to one peptide seller, FDA said evidence from the seller's website showed its products were intended as drugs for human use, despite "for research use only" labels.²³

Health Canada says injectable peptides are regulated as prescription drugs in Canada and that selling unauthorized drugs is illegal there.¹⁸ Its August 1, 2025 advisory names other short peptides such as Livagen and Pinealon, but not Cardiogen.¹⁸ WADA's 2026 list does not name Cardiogen, but its class S0 bans at all times any substance not covered by the list's other sections that has no government approval for human therapeutic use.¹¹ USADA says the 2027 list, in force January 1, 2027, names "peptides" in general in S0.¹² Cardiogen's status in Russia could not be confirmed from an official source.