Cartalax is the Khavinson tripeptide Ala-Glu-Asp (AED, research code T-31). This guide corrects the sequence it is usually sold under, walks through the eighteen indexed records from its single research group — cell and tissue cultures, four experiments in living rats and two 2023 cartilage-cell studies, but no human trial. Reported examples for educational use only, not medical advice.
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Cartalax Guide: Available Now
Educational use only — not medical advice. This guide summarizes information reported in published research and community practice for educational purposes. It is not medical advice and not a recommendation to use any compound. Any doses, schedules, or combinations shown are examples of what has been reported, not instructions for you. Many peptides described here are research compounds that are not FDA-approved for the uses discussed and may be investigational or restricted. Effects, risks, and legal status vary; individual needs and results vary. Consult a qualified, licensed healthcare professional before making any decision. Do not use this content to diagnose, treat, or dose yourself.
Cartalax at a glance
What it is
A synthetic tripeptide, Ala-Glu-Asp (AED), from Vladimir Khavinson's short-peptide "bioregulator" family. PubChem lists it as CID 87815447, formula C12H19N3O8, molecular weight 333.29 g/mol, CAS 85806-95-7, with "Cartalax" and "T-31 peptide" among its synonyms. It is three residues, not four — see the sequence FAQ below.
Researched for
Ageing and tissue renewal, mostly in cell culture. The AED record covers kidney cells, skin fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells, thymocytes, periodontal-ligament stem cells and — since 2023 — chondrocytes and cartilage differentiation, plus four rat experiments on bone and kidney. No human study is indexed.
Plasma half-life
Not established in any species. No pharmacokinetic study of AED has been published, so there is no measured half-life, clearance or bioavailability figure to report — a specific number seen elsewhere is not traceable to a study.
Regulatory status
Not FDA-approved for any use, and no clinical trial of Cartalax is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. Research/educational use only.
Educational reference. This page does not publish dose ranges or reconstitution arithmetic.
What it is / mechanism
Cartalax belongs to the short synthetic peptides developed by Vladimir Khavinson's group at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, a family that also includes Epithalon (AEDG), Vilon (KE) and Pinealon (EDR). The proposed mechanism, shared across the family, is that peptides this short cross into the cell and the nucleus and interact directly with DNA to modulate tissue-specific gene expression — a genuinely unusual claim, since most signalling peptides act at a surface receptor rather than on the genome itself. The specific proposal for AED comes from a 2014 paper in Advances in Gerontology (PMID 25946838), which reports that molecular models of AED and the related peptide EDL form their most energetically favourable complexes with d(ATATATATAT)₂ sequences in the DNA minor groove, and argues that this AT-rich binding is the cause of the gene-expression changes the same paper measured in ageing renal cell culture. It is important to read that for what it is: a computational docking model paired with a cell-culture observation, not a demonstration that AED reaches the nucleus of a cell in a living organism or that binding at that site drives the effect. No structural or binding study — no crystal structure, no measured dissociation constant for AED at DNA — appears in the indexed literature. The mechanism is a hypothesis with a model behind it, and it should be described that way.
Researched effects
Most measured effects of AED are cell-culture effects, and they are reasonably consistent across several tissue types. In ageing renal cell culture (PMID 25946838, Advances in Gerontology, 2014), AED increased proliferation and decreased expression of the senescence markers p16, p21 and p53 while increasing SIRT-6. In organotypic kidney explants from young and old rats (PMID 26033601, Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2015), AED — there called T-31 — stimulated proliferation and reduced apoptosis, though the paper is explicit that it did so to a lesser degree than the whole calf-kidney polypeptide complex it was being compared against. In skin fibroblasts aged in vitro (PMID 27259496, 2016), AED was among the peptides that inhibited MMP-9 synthesis and raised Ki-67 and CD98hc, and AED specifically suppressed caspase-dependent apoptosis. In human embryonic bone-marrow mesenchymal stem cells (PMID 32399807, Molecular Biology Reports, 2020), the studied peptides raised IGF1 expression 3.5- to 5.6-fold. One further result belongs here precisely because it is negative: in an ageing thymocyte culture (PMID 22238759, 2011), T-31 was tested alongside two other peptides and only AB-9 produced the geroprotective effect — AED did not. Vendor summaries of this compound tend to carry the positive results and omit this one. Two further 2023 papers from the same group (PMIDs 37782646 and 37356100, Advances in Gerontology) are the first on the tissue the compound is sold for: in ageing human mesenchymal stem cells AED switched on the cartilage-differentiation markers SOX9, aggrecan, type II collagen and COMP at 200 ng/ml, where a cartilage polypeptide extract needed 2,000 ng/ml, and in ageing chondrocytes both normalised a pro-inflammatory senescence profile. Four experiments were done in living rats: bone density after ovariectomy (PMID 18306703, where a cartilage extract did significantly better), cisplatin kidney injury (PMID 26515176), kidney function in old rats (PMID 30607912) and jaw-bone healing in old rats (PMID 28423258, which uses the Russian spelling Kartalaks). None of these is a joint or osteoarthritis model.
Evidence & regulatory status
Evidence: eighteen indexed records, all from the same research group — ten cell or tissue cultures, four experiments in living rats, three reviews and one DNA-docking model. There is no human study of any kind in PubMed and no animal study of a joint. The English name finds only six of the eighteen; the Russian spellings Kartalaks and Kartalax find two more, and the rest are indexed under AED or T-31. One record is a published negative result for AED itself (thymocyte culture, PMID 22238759).
Cartilage, stated plainly: an earlier version of this page said no study of AED in cartilage exists. That was wrong — the search it relied on used the spelled-out sequence, which these papers do not use. Two 2023 cell-culture studies test AED on cartilage-forming stem cells and on chondrocytes, both positive (PMIDs 37782646 and 37356100). What still does not exist in the indexed record is any animal or human study of a joint. The developers' own 2023 review (PMID 37782637) states that AED has worked in animal osteoarthritis models and in older patients taking it by mouth, but no such study can be found in PubMed or on ClinicalTrials.gov.
Registry: no clinical trial of Cartalax or AED is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. Combined with the absence of animal dosing work, this means every dose figure circulating for this compound originates outside the scientific literature.
Regulatory: not approved by the FDA or EMA for any use, not an established prescription drug, and handled as a research chemical. Material sold as Cartalax is for laboratory and research use only — not a dietary supplement or medicine, and not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Research timeline
Dated milestones taken from the primary records: the molecule's discovery, its first registered human study, the trials that shaped the evidence and the regulatory decisions. Each entry links to the record it comes from.
In ovariectomised rats, a model of bone loss after menopause, the T-31 peptide and a cartilage-extract preparation both protect bone mineral density; the abstract reports significantly higher efficacy for the extract. PMID 18306703
In a culture of ageing thymus cells, T-31 is tested against two related peptides and shows no geroprotective effect; only the peptide coded AB-9 does, the clearest negative result in this compound's record. PMID 22238759
The product name enters PubMed for the first time, as "Kartalaks": a Russian study in old rats reports more advanced remodelling of new bone in a jaw defect when the peptide was given before surgery, judged by histology. PMID 28423258
A study in old rats by a Chernivtsi university team with the St Petersburg institute reports that AED lowered protein in the urine, and that kidney histology and antioxidant enzymes showed no sign of kidney toxicity; this is an efficacy experiment, not a toxicology study. PMID 30607912
Moscow State University researchers, with Khavinson, report in Molecular Biology Reports that AED and two related short peptides raised IGF1 gene expression in an ageing human embryonic bone-marrow stem-cell line; cell culture only. PMID 32399807
In ageing human mesenchymal stem cells, the institute reports that AED switched on the genes and proteins of cartilage formation (SOX9, aggrecan, type II collagen, COMP), and names testing in osteoarthritis models as the next step. PMID 37782646
The developing institute's own review states that the AED tripeptide, named Kartalax, has shown high efficacy in animal osteoarthritis models and taken by mouth in older patients with osteoarthritis; a search of PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov on 5 October 2026 found no record of that patient study. PMID 37782637
Records checked Oct 5, 2026
Claims at a glance
The claims most often made about this compound, each with the strongest kind of evidence we found for it. The grade says what was studied, not whether the claim is true; the line beside it says what that study showed.
Rebuilds joint cartilageCell or tissue studies only. In ageing human stem cells in a dish, it switched on all four markers of cartilage formation; no study has tested it in a joint, in animals or in people. PMID 37782646
Slows cartilage ageingCell or tissue studies only. In ageing cartilage cells grown in the lab, it brought ageing and inflammation markers back towards normal, as the cartilage extract it was derived from also did. PMID 37356100
Has a general anti-ageing effect on cellsCell or tissue studies only. Tested on ageing thymus cells beside two sibling peptides, it showed no anti-ageing effect; only one of the siblings did. PMID 22238759
Protects bone densityAnimal studies only. In rats after removal of the ovaries, it limited bone loss and partly restored density, but the cartilage extract it was refined from worked significantly better. PMID 18306703
Speeds bone healingAnimal studies only. Given to old rats before a standard jaw-bone defect was made, the new bone was more mature at 60 to 120 days than in untreated rats and in rats given it only after surgery. PMID 28423258
Supports ageing kidneysAnimal studies only. In old rats, it lowered protein in the urine and raised urine output and sodium handling; a sibling peptide raised sodium excretion more. PMID 30607912
The reasoning behind each grade, study by study, is in this guide's Benefit & Outcome Review.
Grades checked Oct 7, 2026
A printable reference sheet with the compound's key facts, storage guidance and a vial record comes with All-Access Lifetime.
Half-life & pharmacokinetics
There is no published half-life for Cartalax, and that is the complete answer rather than a gap in this page. No pharmacokinetic study of AED has been published in any species — no clearance, no volume of distribution, no bioavailability, no measured plasma concentration at any time point. A figure of roughly 30 minutes circulates widely, and an earlier version of this page carried it; it could not be traced to any study and has been removed rather than repeated. What can be said is general rather than specific: unmodified short peptides with free N- and C-termini are substrates for the exopeptidases present in plasma, so a short circulating life is chemically reasonable to expect. That is an expectation from the class, not a measurement of this compound, and it should not be quoted as a number.
Reported side effects & toxicology
There is no published human safety data for Cartalax, because there is no published human study of Cartalax. The Khavinson short-peptide family is generally described as well tolerated in the available literature and observational reports, and minor injection-site reactions are the most commonly mentioned complaint in community sources. Neither of those statements is a safety finding for this compound: an absence of reported harm from research that never dosed a person is not evidence of safety, and long-term safety is entirely unestablished.
Storage & handling
Lyophilized (powder): store sealed and protected from light; refrigerated at 2–8 °C is common, and freezing supports longer-term storage.
Reconstituted (in bacteriostatic water): keep refrigerated at 2–8 °C, protect from light, and use within a few weeks. Bacteriostatic water's benzyl alcohol is what makes repeated withdrawals from one vial reasonable; sterile water carries no preservative and is single-use.
References
Primary sources for this guide: NCBI's substance record for alanyl-glutamyl-aspartic acid (synonyms cartalax, T-31 peptide) for the sequence; PMIDs 37782646 and 37356100 (Advances in Gerontology, 2023) for the cartilage-cell results and PMID 37782637 for the developers' review; PMIDs 18306703, 26515176, 28423258 and 30607912 for the four rat experiments; PMID 25946838 (Advances in Gerontology, 2014) for the renal cell-culture results and the DNA minor-groove binding model; PMID 26033601 (Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2015) for the organotypic kidney explant comparison; PMID 27259496 (2016) for skin-fibroblast MMP-9 and apoptosis findings; PMID 32399807 (Molecular Biology Reports, 2020) for IGF1 expression in mesenchymal stem cells; PMID 30791821 (International Journal of Immunopathology and Pharmacology, 2019) for periodontal-ligament stem-cell differentiation; and PMID 22238759 (2011) for the negative thymocyte result. Registry status checked against ClinicalTrials.gov. Where an earlier version of this page carried the AEDL sequence or a 30-minute half-life, those statements have been withdrawn because neither could be traced to a source. It also said no cartilage or animal study existed; both statements were wrong and have been corrected (September 2026).
Evidence File
The Cartalax Evidence File: Eighteen Papers, Four Rat Studies, No Human Trial, and a Name You Have to Spell in Russian to Find
Cartalax has a small, coherent literature that almost nobody reads in full, because no single search finds it. The English spelling on the vial appears in no title or abstract in PubMed. The Russian spellings find two papers, the chemical name finds six, and the laboratory codes find the rest. Assembled by hand, the corpus is eighteen records from one research group: ten cell and tissue cultures, four experiments in living rats, three reviews and one computer model. It contains no clinical trial, and no registered study exists anywhere. This file names every record and states what each one can and cannot support.
18 records in the corpus, all from one research group
0 hits for the English spelling in any title or abstract
4 experiments in living rats, 0 in people
8 of the 18 are published only in Russian
Why no single search finds this compound's literature
The eighteen records, sorted by what kind of research they are
Ten papers tagged Humans, and not one person dosed
The registry, and two traps that inflate every count
What has never been measured
5 more sections in the Evidence File for Cartalax
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for Cartalax for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
The sections above this one stay free to read without an account.
Sourcing File
The Cartalax Sourcing File: 333 Daltons, a Wrong Synonym on PubChem's Own Record, and a Peptide Too Small to Hide Behind
This compound is three amino acids long and weighs 333 daltons, which changes what a certificate of analysis can and should prove. There is no approved drug in its class to counterfeit, so the realistic failure is confusion rather than fraud — and the clearest example sits in PubChem's own record for the molecule, which lists a synonym naming a different tripeptide 44 daltons heavier. This file gives the identity chain from the primary record, explains why a tripeptide is easy to verify, names the one gap that small size does not close, and sets out what a certificate must show, in the order to read it.
333.11721457 monoisotopic — three residues, not a chain
1 wrong synonym on PubChem's record for this compound
44.01 Da separates it from the molecule that synonym names
0 aromatic residues, so UV purity is read at a less selective wavelength
The identifier chain, fetched from PubChem
A wrong name inside the reference record
Why a tripeptide is easy to verify, and the one thing that is not
What the certificate must show, in the order to read it
4 more sections in the Sourcing File for Cartalax
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for Cartalax for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
The sections above this one stay free to read without an account.
Benefit & Outcome Review
The Cartalax Benefit & Outcome Review: Every Time It Was Tested Against Something Else, Including the Two Cartilage Results
There are no human outcomes for this compound, so this review does not report effect sizes in people. What the literature does contain is rare for a research peptide: repeated side-by-side tests against a comparator — the tissue extract it was derived from, or sibling peptides from the same programme. Comparisons are the easiest results to interpret, because the comparator absorbs the noise. Against the extract it lost twice outside cartilage and was less broad once, drew three times, and on cartilage cells it matched the extract at one tenth of the concentration. This file reports every one, plus the four experiments in living rats.
7 tests against the tissue extract: 2 lost, 1 narrower, 3 drawn, 1 won
200 ng/ml vs 2,000 ng/ml — its one clear win, on cartilage cells
4 experiments in living rats, none of them in a joint
0 outcomes measured in a human being
How to read a benefit review with no human data
Against the tissue extract it was refined from: seven tests
Against its sibling peptides
The four experiments in living animals
The honest summary
5 more sections in the Benefit & Outcome Review for Cartalax
Unlock the Evidence File, Sourcing File and Benefit & Outcome Review for Cartalax for $14 — or every compound in the library, plus the printable reference sheets, for $99.
Quick answers about guide scope, access, and educational use context.
What is Cartalax?
Cartalax is a synthetic short peptide from the Khavinson bioregulator family, developed at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology. Its sequence is Ala-Glu-Asp (AED) and it also appears in the literature under the research code T-31. It is a research compound, not an approved medicine. Its indexed record is eighteen papers from one research group — mostly cell culture, four rat experiments, and no human trial.
Is Cartalax AEDL or AED — a tripeptide or a tetrapeptide?
It is AED, the tripeptide Ala-Glu-Asp. This page previously said Ala-Glu-Asp-Leu (AEDL), a tetrapeptide, which is the sequence Cartalax is most often sold under — and it is wrong. Two NCBI databases settle it independently. PubChem records Cartalax as CID 87815447 with the formula C12H19N3O8, a molecular weight of 333.29 g/mol and CAS number 85806-95-7, listing "Cartalax", "Ala-Glu-Asp", "H-Ala-Glu-Asp-OH" and "T-31 peptide" as synonyms of L-alanyl-L-glutamyl-L-aspartic acid — three residues. The MeSH substance record agrees, describing the same compound as a synthetic peptide with geroprotective activity. Every indexed study returned by a search for Cartalax examines AED. The distinction is easy to check on a certificate of analysis, and this is the practical reason to care: AED has a mass of 333.29, whereas a genuine AEDL tetrapeptide would calculate to roughly 446 — a difference of about 113 daltons, far larger than any measurement tolerance. A mass-spectrometry result on a report will match one sequence or the other, unambiguously.
Is there any research on Cartalax and cartilage?
Yes, in cell culture, and an earlier version of this page wrongly said there was none: its search used the spelled-out sequence, while these papers call the peptide AED. Two 2023 studies from the developing group, both in Russian with English abstracts, are on target. In ageing human mesenchymal stem cells, AED raised gene expression and protein synthesis of SOX9, aggrecan, type II collagen and COMP at 200 ng/ml; a cartilage polypeptide extract needed 2,000 ng/ml for the same effect (PMID 37782646). In ageing chondrocytes, AED and the extract both normalised a senescence profile of raised p16, p21, p53, TNF-α and IL-1α and lowered Sirt1 (PMID 37356100). Neither has been replicated by another laboratory, and no animal or human study of a joint is indexed.
Has Cartalax been tested in humans or in animals?
In rats, yes; in humans, not in any study you can check. An earlier version of this page said no animal study existed, which was wrong. Four rat experiments are indexed: bone density after ovariectomy (PMID 18306703), cisplatin kidney injury (PMID 26515176), jaw-bone healing in old rats (PMID 28423258) and kidney function in old rats (PMID 30607912). None is a joint model. No human study is indexed in PubMed and no trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, although the developers' 2023 review says the peptide has been taken by mouth by older patients with osteoarthritis. That is why this guide gives no dosing recommendation: there is no human dose in the literature to report.
What is Cartalax's half-life?
Unknown, in every species. No pharmacokinetic study of AED has been published — no half-life, clearance, volume of distribution or bioavailability figure exists. The roughly-30-minute figure that circulates online, which this page used to carry, could not be traced to any study and has been withdrawn. Short peptides with unprotected termini are generally expected to be cleared quickly by plasma exopeptidases, but that is a property of the class rather than a measurement of this compound.
Do any of the Cartalax studies report a negative result?
Yes, and vendor summaries omit them. A 2011 study of ageing thymocyte cultures (PMID 22238759) tested T-31 — the code for AED — alongside two other peptides, and only AB-9 produced a geroprotective effect. In two more, AED was beaten by the tissue extract it competes with: on bone density in rats (PMID 18306703) and on kidney explants (PMID 26033601). Most records are positive, a few are negative, and all come from the same research group, which is the honest shape of the evidence base.
Why is all the Cartalax research from one group?
The Khavinson short peptides were developed at a single institute and the great majority of work on them has been published by that institute and its collaborators, largely in Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine and Advances in Gerontology. That is not by itself a reason to dismiss the findings, but independent replication is a large part of how a result becomes reliable, and for this compound it has not happened. When reading any claim about Cartalax, it is reasonable to ask whether anyone outside the originating group has reproduced it. So far, no.
Is there an established Cartalax dose?
No. The amounts and course lengths quoted in community and secondary sources have no study behind them — no indexed study has given this peptide to a person at any dose — so this page does not reproduce them.
Is Cartalax FDA-approved or prohibited in sport?
It is not FDA-approved for any use and is sold for research only. It is not listed by name on the WADA Prohibited List, but a substance not being named is not the same as a substance being permitted — non-approved compounds can fall under the catch-all category for substances with no current regulatory approval for human therapeutic use. Any athlete should verify current anti-doping rules directly rather than relying on a guide page for compliance.
Compliance and trust notes
Educational content only; no personalized health or outcome claims.
No personalized use recommendation outputs.
Use this material for general learning and research-context literacy.
A certificate of analysis (COA) is a laboratory’s report on one sample of one batch. The single most useful thing to know about it is that purity and identity are two separate results that fail in different ways. A high purity figure says the sample was mostly one substance; it does not say that substance was Cartalax. Identity — normally a mass-spectrometry result matching the expected molecular weight — is what establishes what the material actually is, and a certificate reporting purity alone has not answered that question.
Two further limits are worth holding onto. Mass per vial is its own test: a vial can be 99% pure and still contain less material than the label claims. And sterility, endotoxin, heavy metals and residual solvent screening are separately commissioned tests, usually priced individually — so a “third-party tested” badge asserts none of them unless the certificate names them. Check that the batch or lot number on the document matches the vial in front of you; an unmatched certificate describes someone else’s material.
Medibact does not test, endorse or resell peptides, and publishes no rating of any laboratory. How to read a peptide certificate of analysis walks through the document section by section, and what each COA field establishes covers the field-by-field detail and the laboratories that publish their methods.
You’ll need bacteriostatic water
The diluent for reconstituting Cartalax
Reconstitution is volume arithmetic — it assumes a lyophilized vial is dissolved in bacteriostatic water, which is sterile water preserved with 0.9% benzyl alcohol. The preservative is what allows a vial to be entered more than once; plain sterile water carries none and is single-entry by design. Medibact supplies USP-grade Bacteriostatic Water for Injection in a 30 mL multi-dose vial, made in the United States and shipped from the United States, for research use only. One 30 mL vial covers 30 reconstitutions at 1 mL each, 15 at 2 mL, or 10 at 3 mL — division only, not a dosing recommendation.
Educational use only — not medical advice. This guide summarizes information reported in published research and community practice for educational purposes. It is not medical advice and not a recommendation to use any compound. Any doses, schedules, or combinations shown are examples of what has been reported, not instructions for you. Many peptides described here are research compounds that are not FDA-approved for the uses discussed and may be investigational or restricted. Effects, risks, and legal status vary; individual needs and results vary. Consult a qualified, licensed healthcare professional before making any decision. Do not use this content to diagnose, treat, or dose yourself.
