How much water do I add to a 20 mg Cardiogen vial?

There is no single correct amount: water changes how many units a dose is, not how many doses the vial holds. With 1 mL the vial is 20 mg/mL and 1 mg is 5 units (0.05 mL) on a U-100 insulin syringe. The units table gives 1, 2, 5 mL.

How many doses are in a 20 mg Cardiogen vial?

100 doses at 200 mcg, 20 doses at 1 mg, 10 doses at 2 mg.

How long does a 20 mg Cardiogen vial last?

At 1 mg a dose and once daily, about 2.9 weeks. How long a mixed vial keeps is a separate limit; see storage below.

How many 20 mg vials do I need for a cycle?

1 vial at 200 mcg 7 times a week for 1.4 weeks; 3 vials at 2 mg 7 times a week for 2.9 weeks.

What does 1 unit equal in a 20 mg Cardiogen vial?

200 mcg with 1 mL, 100 mcg with 2 mL, 40 mcg with 5 mL of bacteriostatic water, on a U-100 syringe.

Research use only · common protocol

Cardiogen 20 mg vial dosage

A 20 mg Cardiogen vial mixed with 1 mL of bacteriostatic water gives 20 mg/mL, so 1 mg is 5 units (0.05 mL) on a U-100 insulin syringe. At 1 mg a dose, one vial holds 20 doses.

Email me this plan, with a reminder before the vial's 28-day mark →

The common Cardiogen protocol is 200-2000 mcg, once daily, subcutaneous, most commonly cited around 1 mg/day - common practice, not a dose established in trials. Evidence, side effects and legal status are on the Cardiogen guide.

Cardiogen 20 mg vial at a glance

Vial: 20 mg of Cardiogen per vial
Common dose: 200-2000 mcg
How often: once daily, subcutaneous, most commonly cited around 1 mg/day
Mixing example: 1 mL bacteriostatic water = 20 mg/mL; 1 unit = 200 mcg
Doses per vial: 100 at 200 mcg · 20 at 1 mg · 10 at 2 mg
Cycle: 1.4-2.9 weeks, then 26-52 weeks off

What Cardiogen is

Class:: Synthetic tetrapeptide (Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg)
Also called:: AEDR, AEDR peptide, Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg
Used for:: Marketed as a heart-tissue bioregulator for cardiovascular aging, from the Khavinson organ-specific peptide programme.
Human evidence:: Animal / lab only. Every study of Cardiogen I located and read is an animal or tissue-culture experiment, from one Russian research group and its collaborators: a rat myocardial-tissue-culture proliferation study, a rat transplanted-sarcoma study, and an organotypic-culture study alongside three related bioregulator peptides. I found no published human trial of any kind for Cardiogen.
US status:: Research use only. Not approved for human use by the FDA or any other regulator, and sold as a research chemical.

The full picture, with every study: Cardiogen guide.

Units per dose: Cardiogen 20 mg vial

Water added	Concentration	1 unit =	200 mcg	1 mg	2 mg
1 mL	20 mg/mL	200 mcg	1 unit	5 units	10 units
2 mL	10 mg/mL	100 mcg	2 units	10 units	20 units
5 mL	4 mg/mL	40 mcg	5 units	25 units	50 units

U-100 insulin syringe (100 units = 1 mL), to the nearest half unit. Water volumes are examples. Other numbers: dosage calculator.

Every dose from 200 mcg to 2 mg, in units

With 1 mL of water in a 20 mg vial (20 mg/mL). Every dose across the common range, so you can read off any dose. The sources give a range, not a week-by-week schedule.

Dose	Draw on a U-100 syringe	Volume	Doses per vial
200 mcg	1 unit	0.01 mL	100
250 mcg	1.5 units	0.015 mL	80
500 mcg	2.5 units	0.025 mL	40
750 mcg	4 units	0.04 mL	26
1 mg	5 units	0.05 mL	20
1.25 mg	6.5 units	0.065 mL	16
1.5 mg	7.5 units	0.075 mL	13
1.75 mg	9 units	0.09 mL	11
2 mg	10 units	0.1 mL	10

How many doses a 20 mg vial holds

Dose	Doses per vial	Weeks per vial
200 mcg	100	14.3
1 mg	20	2.9
2 mg	10	1.4

Weeks per vial at the common frequency (once daily, subcutaneous, most commonly cited around 1 mg/day). Doses per vial do not depend on how much water you add.

Email me my Cardiogen 20 mg vial plan

Pick your water volume and dose and I will email you the numbers for this vial - units, volume, doses per vial and how long it lasts - plus the mixing and storage steps, and a reminder before the mixed vial reaches 28 days.

The common Cardiogen protocol

Dose	200-2000 mcg per injection
How often	once daily, subcutaneous, most commonly cited around 1 mg/day
Route	Subcutaneous injection
Cycle	1.4-2.9 weeks
Break	26-52 weeks
Sources agree?	Partly - the sources differ, and the ranges above cover them

Common practice from the vendors and clinics that publish it, not a dose tested in trials. Where it comes from: [1], [2]. I do not give week-by-week titration: none of these sources states one.

Supplies for one cycle with 20 mg vials

Counted for the low and high ends of the common protocol, mixing each vial with 1 mL of water. One new syringe per injection.

Plan	Injections	20 mg vials	Insulin syringes	Bacteriostatic water	Alcohol swabs
200 mcg, 7×/week, 1.4 weeks	10	1	10	1 mL (1 × 10 mL bottle)	22 (1 × 100-pack)
2 mg, 7×/week, 2.9 weeks	21	3	21	3 mL (1 × 10 mL bottle)	48 (1 × 100-pack)

Arithmetic on the protocol and this vial size. Swabs: two per vial mixed (both stoppers) and two per injection (vial stopper and skin). An opened multi-dose vial has a use-by date (see storage), which on a slow schedule can matter more than the dose count. Plan your own numbers with the protocol builder.

How to mix a 20 mg Cardiogen vial

For this vial: 1 mL of bacteriostatic water makes 20 mg/mL, so 1 mg is 5 units (0.05 mL) on a U-100 insulin syringe. Pick a different volume from the units table if you want bigger or smaller draws; the number of doses stays the same.

Wipe the rubber stoppers of both the peptide vial and the bacteriostatic water vial with an alcohol swab and let the alcohol dry. ^[3][4]
With a new sterile needle and syringe, draw up the amount of bacteriostatic water you have chosen for the dilution. ^[3][4][5]
Inject the water into the peptide vial by aiming the stream against the inside glass wall, which helps prevent foaming. ^[6]
Swirl or roll the vial gently until the powder has fully dissolved; do not shake it. Do not inject the solution if it is cloudy or has particles in it. ^[3][4][6]
Label the vial with the date and time it was mixed, the amount of water added and how long it can be used after mixing. ^[3]
Store the mixed vial in the refrigerator at 2-8°C (36-46°F) and do not freeze it. ^[6]

Step by step with pictures: how to reconstitute peptides. About the water itself: bacteriostatic water.

Storing Cardiogen vials

Freeze-dried (lyophilized) peptide keeps far longer than peptide in solution; peptide suppliers advise storing the powder at -20°C away from bright light. ^[7]
Protect peptide vials from heat and light. ^[7][8]
Avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles; a prescription peptide label also says not to freeze a vial once it has been mixed. ^[6][7]
Once a multi-dose vial, such as bacteriostatic water, has been opened (needle-punctured), date it and discard it within 28 days unless its manufacturer states another date. ^[9][10]

More detail: peptide storage and shelf life.

Injecting safely

Clean the injection site with an alcohol swab and let the skin dry completely before injecting. ^[11][12]
Pinch up a fold of skin and fat (not muscle) and insert the needle at a 45- to 90-degree angle: 90 degrees where there is enough fatty tissue, 45 degrees where there is little. ^[11][12][13]
Pulling back on the plunger (aspiration) is not necessary for a subcutaneous injection, because the chance of the needle being in a blood vessel is small. ^[11]
Inject slowly, at roughly 10 seconds per mL. ^[11]
Common sites are the belly, the thigh and the upper arm; rotate sites, keeping each injection at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the last. ^[6][11][12]

Hygiene and warning signs

Use a new sterile needle and syringe for every injection and every time you enter a vial; never reuse them. ^[5][9][12]
Never share needles, syringes or pens with anyone, even if the needle is changed; unsafe injection practices spread hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV. ^[5][8][9]
Put used needles and syringes in a sharps disposal container straight away (FDA-cleared if possible), never loose in the trash, recycling or toilet, and dispose of the container following your community's guidelines. ^[14][15]
Contact a health care provider if the injection site shows signs of infection, such as redness, swelling, red streaks or a fever. ^[12]

Where to inject: subcutaneous injection sites.

How Cardiogen works

Cardiogen is the developers' name for the synthetic tetrapeptide Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg (AEDR), which their 2021 review lists as a peptide regulating cardiovascular function. ^[16]
In cultured mouse embryonic fibroblasts, AEDR raised production of cytoskeletal proteins (actin, tubulin, vimentin) two- to five-fold and of nuclear matrix proteins (lamins A and C) two- to three-fold; the authors tie this to its reported heart-protective activity. ^[17]
A 2022 review by the developers proposes that AEDR regulates molecules involved in the low-grade inflammation and secretory changes of ageing cells in the cardiovascular system. ^[18]
A 2023 computer-modelling study from the same group predicted that AEDR is among the short peptides that bind most effectively to the LAT1, LAT2 and PEPT1 transporters, a possible route into cells. This was docking, not a measurement. ^[19]

What the Cardiogen research found

Human evidence: animal / lab only. Each result says what was studied.

Animal studyIn heart-muscle tissue explants from 3-month-old and 24-month-old rats, cardiogen at 10^-12 M strongly stimulated cell proliferation in both age groups and lowered p53 protein, which the authors read as reduced cell death. ^[20]
Animal studyIn old rats with a transplanted M-1 sarcoma, cardiogen injections slowed tumour growth in a dose-dependent way through haemorrhagic necrosis and tumour-cell apoptosis. The authors found no direct effect on tumour-cell division and suggest it acts through the tumour's blood vessels. ^[21]
Animal studyIn organotypic cultures of tissue from young (3-week-old) and aged (18-month-old) rats, cardiogen at 0.05 ng/ml had a stimulating effect on heart explants compared with untreated explants; it was one of four peptides each tested on its matching tissue. ^[22]

Cardiogen side effects and risks

I found no published human study of Cardiogen, and the rat and cell studies I read measured tissue growth, tumour growth and protein expression, not safety or tolerability.

No human trial of any kind has been published for Cardiogen. Every study I located is in rats or cultured rat tissue.
Nearly all published research on this molecule comes from one Russian institute and its collaborators, much of it in Russian, and has not been independently replicated outside that group.
Sold through unregulated research-chemical channels, so nobody outside the vendor verifies what is actually in a given vial.

Reported side effects and what the studies measured: Cardiogen side effects.

Where this vial size comes from

Cardiogen is sold as a 20 mg vial by the pages below, each checked on the date shown. I list them as evidence that this size exists, not as a recommendation to buy from them.

Next Level PharmvendorLists it as: "Cardiogen (20mg)"; size option 20mg · checked 2026-09-28
BioEdge Research LabsvendorLists it as: "Cardiogen (20mg)"; Fill: 20mg · checked 2026-09-28

The doses come from the sourced common protocol on the Cardiogen guide, and every number on this page is arithmetic on those doses and this vial size.

Where to buy Cardiogen for research

Sold for research use only. Listed by Next Level Pharm and BioEdge Research Labs; compare them on my vendors page or see the listing on the Cardiogen page.

Questions

How much water do I add to a 20 mg Cardiogen vial?: There is no single correct amount: water changes how many units a dose is, not how many doses the vial holds. With 1 mL the vial is 20 mg/mL and 1 mg is 5 units (0.05 mL) on a U-100 insulin syringe. The units table gives 1, 2, 5 mL.
How many doses are in a 20 mg Cardiogen vial?: 100 doses at 200 mcg, 20 doses at 1 mg, 10 doses at 2 mg.
How long does a 20 mg Cardiogen vial last?: At 1 mg a dose and once daily, about 2.9 weeks. How long a mixed vial keeps is a separate limit; see storage below.
How many 20 mg vials do I need for a cycle?: 1 vial at 200 mcg 7 times a week for 1.4 weeks; 3 vials at 2 mg 7 times a week for 2.9 weeks.
What does 1 unit equal in a 20 mg Cardiogen vial?: 200 mcg with 1 mL, 100 mcg with 2 mL, 40 mcg with 5 mL of bacteriostatic water, on a U-100 syringe.

References (22 sources)

[1] Peptides.wiki: Injectable form: 1-2mg SC/IM daily for 10 consecutive days, repeat every 6-12 months; separate oral capsule protocol also described (other, checked 2026-09-28)
[2] The Peptide Catalog: ~0.2-2 mg/day (most commonly cited ~1mg) SC daily, 10-20 day courses, 20mg vial in 2mL BAC water (10mg/mL); states no trial-established dose exists (other, checked 2026-09-28)
[3] OpenStax, Rice University: 12.3 Preparing Unit-Dose Packaged Medications - Clinical Nursing Skills
[4] East Carolina University College of Nursing: Reconstitution of Medication
[5] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Considerations for Blood Glucose Monitoring and Insulin Administration
[6] DailyMed, National Library of Medicine: SEROSTIM (somatropin) for injection - prescribing information and instructions for use
[7] GenScript: Peptide Storage and Handling Guidelines
[8] DailyMed, National Library of Medicine: OZEMPIC (semaglutide) injection - prescribing information
[9] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Preventing Unsafe Injection Practices
[10] Pfizer: Bacteriostatic Water for Injection, USP - prescribing information
[11] OpenStax, Rice University: 12.5 Administering Subcutaneous Injections - Clinical Nursing Skills
[12] MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine: Subcutaneous (SQ) injections
[13] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Chapter 6: Vaccine Administration - Pink Book
[14] US Food and Drug Administration: Best Way to Get Rid of Used Needles and Other Sharps
[15] US Food and Drug Administration: DOs and DON'Ts of Proper Sharps Disposal
[16] PubMed Central, National Library of Medicine: Khavinson VK et al. Peptide Regulation of Gene Expression: A Systematic Review. Molecules 2021;26(22):7053 (PMID 34834147) - full text, Table 5
[17] Khavinson VKh, Lin'kova NS, Polyakova VO et al. Tetrapeptide H-Ala-Glu-Asp-Arg-OH stimulates expression of cytoskeletal and nuclear matrix proteins. Bull Exp Biol Med. 2012;153(4):559-62.
[18] Khavinson V, Linkova N, Dyatlova A et al. Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype of Cardiovascular System Cells and Inflammaging: Perspectives of Peptide Regulation. Cells. 2022;12(1).
[19] Khavinson VK, Linkova NS, Rudskoy AI et al. Feasibility of Transport of 26 Biologically Active Ultrashort Peptides via LAT and PEPT Family Transporters. Biomolecules. 2023;13(3).
[20] Chalisova NI, Lesniak VV, Balykina NA et al. [The effect of the amino acids and cardiogen on the development of myocard tissue culture from young and old rats]. Adv Gerontol. 2009;22(3):409-13.
[21] Levdik NV, Knyazkin IV. Tumor-modifying effect of cardiogen peptide on M-1 sarcoma in senescent rats. Bull Exp Biol Med. 2009;148(3):433-6.
[22] Zakutskiĭ AN, Chalisova NI, Ryzhak GA et al. [The tissue-specific effect of synthetic peptides-biologic regulators in organotypic tissues culture in young and old rats]. Adv Gerontol. 2006;19:93-6.