CJC-1295
Also known as CJC-1295 with DAC, CJC-1295 DAC, CJC with DAC, DAC:GRF, Drug Affinity Complex GRF
CJC-1295 with DAC is a long-acting synthetic GHRH analog that binds serum albumin to sustain pituitary growth hormone and IGF-1 release for over a week per injection.
Typical use cases
Dosing guidelines
Titration
Because of the ~1-week half-life and cumulative IGF-1 effect, protocols are typically described as dosed weekly (or twice weekly) rather than daily; community sources note effects and side effects build over the first weeks. This is educational information, not a recommendation to start, change, or stop any dose.
Reconstitution
Lyophilized powder reconstituted with bacteriostatic water (commonly 1-2 mL added to a 2-5 mg vial); swirl gently rather than shaking; reconstituted solution typically kept refrigerated.
Injection sites
Subcutaneous injection, typically into the abdominal fat (rotating around the navel), with thigh or flank as alternates.
Storage & handling
Lyophilized powder stored refrigerated (2-8 C) and protected from light; longer-term storage frozen. Reconstituted solution kept refrigerated and typically used within several weeks.
Side effects
- Water retention / edema (puffiness in fingers, ankles, face)
- Injection-site reactions (pain, redness, itching, lumps, swelling)
- Tingling or numbness in extremities (carpal-tunnel-like, from fluid retention)
- Flushing, warmth, or dizziness
- Headache
- Joint pain / arthralgia
Research summary
CJC-1295 is a 29-amino-acid analog of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH 1-29) carrying four substitutions (D-Ala2, Gln8, Ala15, Leu27) that resist DPP-IV degradation, plus a Drug Affinity Complex (DAC)—a maleimidopropionyl-lysine extension that covalently binds circulating albumin to extend half-life from minutes to days. The principal human evidence comes from randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled ascending-dose trials in healthy adults published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (Teichman et al., 2006), where single subcutaneous doses raised mean GH 2- to 10-fold for at least 6 days and IGF-1 1.5- to 3-fold for 9-11 days, with repeated dosing sustaining elevated IGF-1 up to roughly 28 days; the estimated half-life was 5.8-8.1 days and the agent was reported as relatively well tolerated with no serious adverse reactions in those studies. A follow-up proteomic analysis (Sackmann-Sala et al., 2009) in healthy young men documented serum protein-profile shifts (e.g., apolipoprotein A1 and transthyretin isoforms) correlating with GH/IGF-1 changes, and preclinical work (Alba et al., 2006) showed once-daily CJC-1295 normalized growth in GHRH-knockout mice. Important limitations: the human data come from small, short-term studies, the drug was never FDA-approved, and a clinical program was discontinued after a patient death that investigators attributed to pre-existing coronary disease rather than the drug. Continuous (non-pulsatile) GH elevation from the DAC version is a theoretical concern compared with native pulsatile secretion, and long-term safety, efficacy, and outcomes data in humans are lacking. Much current usage information derives from community and compounding-clinic reports rather than controlled trials.
Key references
- https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/91/3/799/2843281
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2787983/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16822960/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CJC-1295
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