Sermorelin

When Andrew Schally and Roger Guillemin shared the 1977 Nobel for unpicking the hypothalamic releasing factors, the full growth hormone-releasing hormone they were chasing turned out to be a 44-residue peptide. Lab work through the 1980s then asked an obvious question: how much of that chain is actually needed to fire the somatotroph? The answer, after dozens of truncation studies, was the first 29 residues from the N-terminus. Sermorelin is exactly that fragment, acetate salt, synthetic.

Why the 1-29 cut matters in vitro

In pituitary cell assays the 1-29 sequence keeps essentially all of the GHRH receptor binding affinity and cAMP signalling of the full 44-mer. The trailing residues turn out to be structural padding rather than active site. That is why researchers reach for Sermorelin when they want a clean GHRH agonist without the synthesis cost or storage headache of the parent peptide.

Not a ghrelin mimetic

This compound sits on the GHRH receptor only. It is not interchangeable with Ipamorelin, GHRP-2, GHRP-6, hexarelin or any of the ghrelin pathway agonists, even though all of them end up pushing GH release through the somatotroph. Different receptor, different intracellular cascade, different desensitisation profile. That distinction is the entire reason Sermorelin remains the reference compound in dual-pathway studies.

The Geref footnote

Serono brought sermorelin acetate to market in 1997 as Geref, used clinically as a diagnostic probe for paediatric GH deficiency. The product was withdrawn in 2008, not for safety reasons but because the commercial niche dried up once recombinant GH became the standard diagnostic and treatment route. The synthesis is well understood and the reference data from that clinical era still anchors modern research papers.

What turns up at the door

• Lyophilised white powder, 2 mg per vial unless the listing says otherwise
• Acetate salt form, C149H246N44O42S, MW 3357.93
• HPLC purity reported on the batch CoA, mass confirmed by MS
• Reconstitute in bacteriostatic or sterile water, then cold storage at 2 to 8 C for working stocks, below minus 18 C for the rest

How we get it to your bench

Material is sourced from UK and EU synthesis partners and held in our Hertfordshire facility. Roughly nine in ten UK orders land inside 48 hours, tracked. The CoA matching your vial batch sits with the listing as a PDF, and if the lab work flags anything off-spec we refund without arguing the point. Bulk orders of ten vials or more go through the support inbox so we can quote on the actual batch sitting in the freezer that week. Live chat is staffed by people who know the catalogue during UK working hours.

Sold strictly for in vitro laboratory research. Not for human or veterinary use. UK 18+.