Peptides
Cartalax (AED): cartilage-cell signals versus joint repair
What is it?
Cartalax is a marketed name for the short peptide Ala-Glu-Asp (AED) in the bioregulator literature. Product identity and purity should be checked against a lot-specific analysis; the name is not itself a clinical formulation. [1]
What do studies show?
A 2023 research paper exposed human mesenchymal stem cells, grown outside the body, to AED and reported increases in cartilage-differentiation markers including SOX9, aggrecan, type-II collagen, and COMP. These markers make the compound interesting to study, but there was no human joint injection, cartilage imaging, pain comparison, or functional outcome. Manufacturer material also describes uncontrolled clinical observations, which cannot establish causation or substitute for an accessible randomized report. [1,2]
Safety
No cell-culture result establishes systemic or injectable safety. Joint pain can have many causes; claims of cartilage repair should not replace diagnosis and evidence-based rehabilitation.
DOSE STATUS
How much?
EVIDENCE CONTEXT
Why?
The cited evidence does not establish a dose for this use or product.
The published cell experiment used AED at 200 ng/mL in culture medium. That is not a human dose and cannot be converted to one from a vial size. No safe/effective human regimen for the catalog Cartalax formulation has been established. [1]