Epitalon For Sale — 10 mg Research Vials of the Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly Tetrapeptide

What Is Epitalon?

Epitalon is the synthetic tetrapeptide distilled from epithalamin, a pineal-derived preparation studied extensively in Soviet and later Russian gerontology research. Where epithalamin was a complex extract, epitalon is a defined four-amino-acid sequence, which is what makes it usable as a reproducible research reagent rather than a variable biological preparation.

At 390 daltons it is among the smallest peptides in routine research use — smaller than many small-molecule drugs. That size underpins the central hypothesis in its literature: that short bioregulator peptides may act at the level of chromatin and gene expression rather than through conventional receptor binding, a proposal that remains an active and genuinely contested research question.

It is important to characterise the evidence honestly. Much of the foundational work is decades old, published in journals with limited international circulation, and not consistently replicated under modern standards. That is a reason for careful experimental design, not a reason to dismiss the compound, and it is why current laboratories tend to run epitalon with rigorous vehicle controls and orthogonal readouts.

Proposed Mechanisms Under Investigation

The most cited line of investigation concerns telomerase. Early cell-culture work reported increased telomerase reverse transcriptase expression and extended replicative capacity in human somatic cell cultures after exposure to epitalon. Modern replication attempts read out TERT transcript levels by quantitative PCR alongside telomere length measurement, since expression and functional outcome do not always move together.

A second proposal is direct interaction with DNA. Because the tetrapeptide is small and carries two acidic residues, models have been advanced in which it associates with specific promoter regions and modulates transcription. Testing that hypothesis requires biophysical binding work rather than cell-culture readouts, and this is where the field is currently thinnest.

A third area concerns cellular senescence markers more broadly: senescence-associated β-galactosidase staining, p16 and p21 expression, and morphological scoring in serially passaged fibroblast cultures. These are standard senescence endpoints and make epitalon straightforward to slot into an existing longevity-research workflow.

Research Applications and Controls

Typical designs use serially passaged human fibroblast lines, applying epitalon across a concentration range and reading telomerase expression, senescence markers, and population doubling. Because passage number itself dominates these readouts, matched-passage controls are essential and the most common design flaw in published work is their absence.

Epitalon also appears in comparative bioregulator panels alongside pinealon, thymalin, cortagen and other short peptides from the same research programme. Running them together clarifies whether an observed effect is sequence-specific or a general property of short acidic peptides — a control that a surprising amount of the older literature omits.

Analytically, epitalon is a useful test case for method development at the low-molecular-weight end of peptide chromatography, where retention is poor and separation from buffer components is the practical challenge.

• Telomerase (TERT) expression and telomere length assays
• Replicative senescence and population-doubling studies
• Comparative short-bioregulator peptide panels
• Low-molecular-weight peptide chromatography method development

Why Purity Verification Matters More for Short Peptides

Short sequences are easy to synthesise and therefore easy to synthesise carelessly. A four-residue peptide with a deletion impurity still produces a plausible mass spectrum and a clean-looking chromatogram to an untrained eye, because the impurity elutes close to the main peak and the mass difference is small relative to the instrument's working range.

This is compounded by weak retention on standard reverse-phase columns: epitalon elutes early, close to the void, where buffer salts and synthesis residues also appear. A method that has not been developed specifically for short, polar peptides can integrate co-eluting material into the main peak and report an inflated purity.

For that reason our release testing for epitalon uses conditions tuned for polar, weakly retained analytes rather than the generic gradient applied to larger peptides, and the certificate records the method conditions so a laboratory can judge the number rather than accept it.

Storage, Reconstitution and Working Practice

Store sealed vials frozen and protected from light and moisture. Epitalon's lyophilized cake is small relative to the vial volume, so it is easy to lose visually — inspect carefully before assuming a vial is empty, and always allow the vial to reach room temperature before opening.

Reconstitution is straightforward: the tetrapeptide is freely water-soluble and requires no organic co-solvent, no warming, and no pH adjustment. Add bacteriostatic water down the vial wall and swirl briefly. Complete dissolution should be immediate; anything else suggests moisture ingress during storage.

Because epitalon is often used at higher molar concentrations than larger peptides — a consequence of its low molecular weight — pay particular attention to the mass-to-molarity conversion when preparing stocks. Our reconstitution calculator handles that conversion directly.

Material Specifications

Compound

Epitalon (Epithalon, Epithalamin tetrapeptide)

Sequence

Ala-Glu-Asp-Gly (AEDG)

Molecular formula

C14H22N4O9

Molar mass

≈ 390.3 g/mol

Class

Short bioregulator peptide

Solubility

Freely soluble in water; no organic co-solvent required

Storage

Sealed vials frozen; reconstituted 2–8 °C

Use

In vitro laboratory research only

Purity, Testing & Certificates of Analysis

Epitalon is released against reverse-phase HPLC criteria using a gradient developed for short, polar, weakly retained peptides rather than the generic method applied to larger analytes, with mass-spectrometry identity confirmation. The certificate records the method conditions so the purity figure can be interpreted rather than merely accepted.

Deletion impurities are the realistic synthesis failure mode for a four-residue sequence, and they elute close to the main peak, so release review focuses on peak resolution and shape as much as on the integrated percentage.

Every shipment references a dated, lot-specific Certificate of Analysis recording purity, identity, water content, appearance and assay date, and certificates stay retrievable after purchase.

Browse the Certificate of Analysis library →

Research FAQ

Research Resources

• Epitalon in the Peptide Encyclopedia
• Epitalon vs. Thymalin comparison
• What is a bioregulator peptide?
• Guide: storage and handling protocols
• Guide: HPLC quality testing explained
• Reconstitution calculator
• Peptide Encyclopedia