MGF has a large literature and almost no dosing record. Most of the 194 PubMed records with its name in the title or abstract measure the body's own MGF — the splice form of IGF-1 that muscle makes after loading or injury — and a smaller set test synthetic MGF peptides on cells or animals. None gives it to a person. This page sets out the animal figures that exist, the 2014 attempt by two drug companies to reproduce MGF's best-known effect, what vendor pages cite, and the arithmetic for the 2 mg and 5 mg vials the research market sells (sources opened 2026-10-22). It reports figures; it suggests none.
The PEGylated form has its own page, PEG-MGF dosage, and the two should not be read across. Any vial and water volume is worked by the MGF vial calculator; Medibact's MGF guide covers the compound.
What the vial actually contains
IGF-1 is made in several forms that share the same 70-residue mature hormone and differ in a tail, the E domain, that is cut off. One form — IGF-1Ec in humans, IGF-1Eb in rodents — is described as rising in muscle after exercise or injury, and its C-terminal piece was named mechano growth factor. A research vial labelled MGF holds a synthetic version of that 24-residue end piece; the 2014 paper below tested both the native sequence and a stabilised version. It is not IGF-1, and it is not the whole splice variant.
That distinction is the first reason the dosage record is thin: much of what is written about "MGF" describes the body's own isoform, measured in muscle biopsies, and says nothing about an injected peptide.
The animal figures
| Study | Animal and setting | Peptide | Amount and schedule | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deng et al., Int Orthop 2011 (PMID 21057789) | 27 rabbits, 5 mm radius defect | MGF-Ct24E (24-residue E peptide) | 28.5 or 57 mcg/kg by injection, five consecutive days after surgery | Healing better than no treatment at 57 mcg/kg (p < 0.01) |
| Same paper, laboratory arm | MC3T3-E1 bone-forming cells | MGF-Ct24E | Concentrations in culture | Proliferation 1.4 times IGF-1's |
| Fornaro et al., Am J Physiol 2014 (PMID 24253050) | Mouse C2C12 cells, primary human myoblasts, primary mouse muscle stem cells, heart cells | Native and stabilised MGF | Up to 500 ng/mL in culture | No effect on proliferation, fusion or p-ERK; IGF-1 active in every test |
The rabbit study is the one that states an injected amount per kilogram. Its lower amount, 28.5 mcg/kg, did not reach significance; the higher did. The paper's abstract does not state the rabbits' weights, so the total micrograms per animal cannot be worked from it.
The replication that failed
The 2014 paper is unusual because of who wrote it. Its authors, from two pharmaceutical companies' research institutes, set out to reproduce the claimed effects of MGF on muscle precursor cells — more proliferation, delayed fusion into fibres — because those claims made MGF a candidate drug for muscle regeneration. At concentrations up to 500 ng/mL, neither the native peptide nor a stabilised version did either thing in mouse cells, human cells or primary mouse muscle stem cells, and a separate reported effect in heart cells did not appear either. Mature IGF-1 and the full-length splice form worked in the same assays. The authors' conclusion was that their results "call in to question whether there is a physiological role for MGF".
That does not settle the question — positive animal studies such as the rabbit paper came before and after it — but it is the only test of MGF by a group with a commercial reason to want it to work, and it found nothing.
The figures that circulate
Vendor pages recorded on this site's dosage chart on 2026-09-18 cite 100 to 300 mcg under the skin once a day, or 100 to 200 mcg into a muscle after exercise. They cite no study, and none exists for any amount in people. The 2026 review that grades growth-hormone-axis peptides by evidence records the PEGylated form at its lowest tier, "no peer-reviewed human studies", and describes the native MGF literature as preclinical; it lists a theoretical concern that MGF could promote unwanted cell growth, based on IGF-1Ec findings in cancer biology, as untested in humans either way.
The arithmetic per vial
| Vial | Water | Concentration | mcg per U-100 unit | 100 mcg | 200 mcg | 300 mcg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 mg | 1 mL | 2,000 mcg/mL | 20 | 5 units | 10 units | 15 units |
| 2 mg | 2 mL | 1,000 mcg/mL | 10 | 10 | 20 | 30 |
| 2 mg | 3 mL | 667 mcg/mL | 6.7 | 15 | 30 | 45 |
| 5 mg | 1 mL | 5,000 mcg/mL | 50 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 5 mg | 2 mL | 2,500 mcg/mL | 25 | 4 | 8 | 12 |
| 5 mg | 3 mL | 1,667 mcg/mL | 16.7 | 6 | 12 | 18 |
One U-100 unit is 0.01 mL; the insulin syringe units page shows how the barrels read. Whatever the water, a 2 mg vial holds 20 of the 100 mcg amounts and 6.7 of the 300 mcg amounts; a 5 mg vial holds 50 and 16.7. These are counts of the circulating figures in a vial, not a course.
What is not established
No human dose, route, half-life or safety record exists for synthetic MGF. Whether the peptide does what its name implies is disputed in the laboratory literature itself. Animal amounts come from one rabbit fracture model. A reader comparing it with the IGF-1 analogue sold beside it will find the record there different in kind, not just in degree, on the IGF-1 LR3 dosage page. Decisions about administering anything belong with a clinician.
Sources and dates
Opened 2026-10-22: Fornaro M et al., "Mechano-growth factor peptide, the COOH terminus of unprocessed insulin-like growth factor 1, has no apparent effect on myoblasts or primary muscle stem cells", Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2014;306:E150-6 (abstract); Deng M et al., "Mechano growth factor E peptide promotes osteoblasts proliferation and bone-defect healing in rabbits", Int Orthop 2011;35:1099-106 (abstract); Dominikowski A et al., Front Endocrinol 2026;17:1822475 (full text via PubMed Central, section 3.4.4.1 and table 2); PubMed title/abstract search for "mechano growth factor" (194 records). The WADA list status as recorded on this site's PEG-MGF page (read 2026-10-11). Vendor figures as recorded on this site's dosage chart on 2026-09-18. Concentration and unit arithmetic by this site. Corrections go to the contact page.