doses on the record · research context only
Sermorelin Dosage in the Research Literature
What the studies administered — to which species, by which route, for how long — pinned to its source. A reading of protocols, not a protocol.
Read this first
This page reports the sermorelin dosage figures that appear in published studies — the amounts researchers gave, to whom, and how. It is a record of what was administered in trials and pharmacokinetic experiments, written so a non-specialist can follow it. It is not a dosing guide, and nothing here tells anyone what to take. Where a number appears, the study it came from is cited right beside it. The doses below were given to specific study populations (children, older men, healthy volunteers) under research conditions, and the units — mcg/kg means micrograms per kilogram of body weight; SC means subcutaneous, an injection just under the skin — are spelled out the first time they appear.
Sermorelin Dosage in the Research Literature
The studied doses cluster by purpose. In the pediatric growth-hormone-deficiency efficacy work, the regimen was 30 mcg/kg/day subcutaneous, given at bedtime, in GH-deficient children [1]. In aging research, healthy older men received 0.5 mg and 1 mg subcutaneous twice daily for 14 days, which produced dose-related rises in GH and IGF-1 [2]. In pharmacokinetic work, intravenous doses of 0.25-2 mcg/kg elicited GH release in healthy men, with maximal release around 1-2 mcg/kg [3]. Historically, a single intravenous bolus (commonly about 1 mcg/kg) was also used diagnostically to test the pituitary's GH reserve.
The pattern across these: small subcutaneous doses for endocrine effect, even smaller intravenous doses for diagnostic or PK measurement. Each figure is a study parameter, not a recommendation — see the matching entries on the full reference list.
The diagnostic-testing context
Not every studied dose was meant to treat anything. Historically, GHRH(1-29) was also used as a diagnostic agent: a single intravenous bolus (commonly about 1 mcg/kg) given to provoke a measurable burst of growth hormone, so clinicians could read the pituitary's GH reserve from the response. The pharmacokinetic work underpins that use — intravenous doses of 0.25-2 mcg/kg reliably elicited GH release in healthy men, with the response maximal around 1-2 mcg/kg [3].
This matters for reading the literature correctly. A dose used to test the gland for a few minutes is a different thing from a dose used to stimulate it nightly over weeks, even when the molecule is the same. The diagnostic figures are some of the smallest in the record, and they describe a probe, not a course of treatment.
Routes studied — and why most matter
Three routes appear in the literature. Subcutaneous injection (under the skin) is the primary route in the efficacy and aging studies [1][2]. Intravenous administration (into a vein) was used for diagnostic GH-stimulation testing and for pharmacokinetic measurement [3]. Intranasal delivery (a nasal spray) was tested historically but showed a bioavailability of only 3-5% [3] — meaning only a few percent of the dose actually reached the bloodstream — which is why it never became a serious delivery route.
The same poor-absorption logic explains why oral, sublingual, and troche 'sermorelin' products are widely criticized in research-user communities as ineffective: peptides are chains of amino acids that the gut readily digests and that cross the lining of the mouth poorly, so very little survives to act. The low (~3-5%) intranasal bioavailability is the closest measured proxy for how badly a peptide fares against a mucosal barrier [3]. The practical reading is that the studied, effective route is subcutaneous; the alternatives are either diagnostic (intravenous) or poorly absorbed (mucosal).
Half-life, timing, and stability
Sermorelin's pharmacokinetics shape every protocol. The plasma half-life is short — on the order of 10-12 minutes after intravenous dosing — but a single dose keeps serum GH elevated for roughly three hours [3]. That short half-life is what drove the development of longer-acting analogs (the D-Ala2 substitution and the DAC technology behind CJC-1295) [3]. Timing-wise, the bedtime regimen studied in the pediatric work [1] aligns with the nocturnal, slow-wave-sleep GH surge [12].
On handling: lyophilized (freeze-dried) sermorelin acetate is reconstituted with sterile diluent and, once reconstituted, typically refrigerated, because aqueous peptide solutions degrade — the reason the peptide is supplied as a dry powder. Compounded preparations are prepared under USP <797> sterile-compounding standards. These are formulation facts from the research and compounding record, not instructions for use.
What these dose figures do — and do not — tell you
It is worth being clear about the limits of this record, because a list of numbers can look more settled than it is. The doses above come from a handful of studies in defined populations: GH-deficient children [1], healthy older men [2], and healthy adult volunteers in pharmacokinetic experiments [3]. They establish that GHRH(1-29) produces a dose-related GH and IGF-1 response, and they pin down its timing and route behavior. That is real, and it is cited.
What they do not establish is a recommended regimen for adult use outside those study contexts. The aging study ran 14 days [2]; the cognition and body-composition work in the GHRH-analog class ran about 20 weeks [6]; there is no large, long-term adult sermorelin trial defining a 'standard' dose or duration. So the figures on this page are best read as historical and experimental data points, not as a protocol waiting to be followed — and the broader caution that GH-secretagogue use for aging is 'not yet ready for prime time' [5] applies squarely to the question of how, or whether, to dose it chronically in adults.