MOTS-c Dosage Chart: Studied Doses, Reconstitution

Key takeaways

• There is no human MOTS-c dose, because there is no human trial of MOTS-c. Every MOTS-c dosage chart online was written by a seller.
• The studied doses are mouse doses: 0.5 to 15 mg per kilogram, injected into the abdominal cavity daily for 1 to 8 weeks, or three times a week in an old-age experiment.
• The only human trial in the family tested a modified analog, CB4211, at 25 mg under the skin once daily for 4 weeks in 20 adults; it is a different molecule, and its developer did not take it further.
• Converted by body surface area, the mouse doses correspond to roughly 3 to 85 mg a day for a 70 kg adult. That is our arithmetic, not a dose; seller charts of 5 to 10 mg two or three times a week match no study.
• Despite the title, this page gives no reconstitution example: no US pharmacy may compound MOTS-c in 2026, so there is no legal product to reconstitute.

The direct answer: there is no MOTS-c dose for humans, because MOTS-c has never been given to a person in a clinical trial. What exists are mouse doses, 0.5 to 15 mg per kilogram a day injected into the abdomen, and one four-week trial of a modified analog at 25 mg a day. This page lays those next to the charts sellers circulate, with our conversions labeled as the arithmetic they are. Our MOTS-c profile covers the biology, evidence and legal status; the SS-31 (elamipretide) profile covers the one mitochondrial peptide with a human dose, set out in our SS-31 dosage chart.

The studied doses

Three things matter in reading that table. Every MOTS-c dose went into the abdominal cavity, a route that absorbs differently from an injection under the skin. The mice were dosed daily, or three times a week, not in cycles. And the one human dose belongs to CB4211, which was engineered to be more drug-like than MOTS-c; milligrams of one do not translate into milligrams of the other. After the four-week study no phase 2 followed, and in 2023 CohBar agreed to merge with a cancer-immunotherapy company, as our MOTS-c profile describes.

Our arithmetic, labeled as arithmetic

Animal doses are converted to a first guess at a human-equivalent dose by body surface area, not body weight, because smaller animals burn through drugs faster. For mice, the standard factor is to divide the mg/kg dose by 12.3 (Nair 2016). Applied to a 70 kg adult:

None of those numbers is a dose. The surface-area method is what drug developers use to pick a cautious starting point for a first-in-human safety study, and they then divide by a further safety factor, usually 10 (Nair 2016). It assumes the drug behaves in people the way it does in mice, which for MOTS-c nobody has checked: there are no human data on its half-life, how much of a subcutaneous injection reaches muscle, or whether the immune system reacts to repeated doses. The conversion also ignores the route; every mouse dose was intraperitoneal.

Set against that arithmetic, the seller charts' 10 to 30 mg a week works out to about 1.4 to 4.3 mg a day, near the bottom of the surface-area range, given by a different route on a different schedule. That is not caution derived from the mouse data; it is a number that happens to fall inside a wide range.

The charts sellers circulate

These are claims, not doses. FDA's briefing documents for the July 2026 advisory committee found no human data on MOTS-c at all (Orrick 2026), and FDA's reviewers raised product identity and immunogenicity concerns about the peptides on the agenda (Kelley Drye 2026).

Why there is no reconstitution example, despite the title

People searching for a MOTS-c dosage chart usually want one more thing: how much bacteriostatic water to add to a 10 mg vial and how many units to draw. We are not going to give that, and the reason is simple. There is no legal MOTS-c product in the United States to reconstitute.

• No pharmacy may make it. MOTS-c is not approved anywhere, and it is not on the list of substances 503A pharmacies may compound. FDA's advisory committee voted 7 to 5 with 2 abstentions on July 23, 2026 to recommend adding it, against FDA staff advice, but FDA has issued no rule (Hyman Phelps 2026). Every vial for sale is a research product, which FDA treats as an unapproved drug when it is sold for people.
• The arithmetic would describe an unknown. Reconstitution math assumes the vial holds what the label says. A research vial's content, purity and sterility have not been verified by anyone, so a precise volume would be precise about nothing.
• Reconstitution help is what FDA cites. In its 2026 warning letters to research-peptide sellers, FDA pointed to dosing guides, reconstitution calculators and bundled bacteriostatic water as evidence that the vials were drugs for human use, as our legal tracker records.

Our reconstitution calculator exists for medications a pharmacy has dispensed with a labeled concentration. MOTS-c has neither.

Oral MOTS-c and 'tablets'

People also search for MOTS-c tablets and capsules. In the one direct test we found, a 2023 mouse study of colitis, MOTS-c injected into the abdomen reduced the disease, but MOTS-c given by mouth produced no significant improvement; only a modified version with an added cell-penetrating sequence worked orally (Jiang 2023). No study has tested oral MOTS-c in people, and the mouse result is evidence against the unmodified peptide working by mouth.

Bottom line

A truthful MOTS-c dosage chart has an empty human row. Above it sit mouse doses of 0.5 to 15 mg per kilogram injected into the abdomen, and one four-week trial of a different molecule at 25 mg a day. The seller charts below it match none of those by route, schedule or rationale. If you want what MOTS-c is sold for, exercise raises your own MOTS-c, and the MOTS-c profile explains why the evidence points elsewhere for weight and metabolic health. Until FDA acts, there is no legal MOTS-c product, no label and no dose.

Frequently asked questions

+−What is the MOTS-c dosage per day?

There is no studied human daily dose, because MOTS-c has never been given to people in a trial. The published daily doses are mouse doses of 0.5 to 15 mg per kilogram injected into the abdominal cavity. The only human trial in the family used a modified analog, CB4211, at 25 mg once a day for four weeks, and that dose does not transfer to MOTS-c. Seller charts of 5 to 10 mg two or three times a week were written by sellers.

+−How much MOTS-c should I take?

No one can answer that from evidence, and we do not recommend any amount. Nobody knows the human dose, how long MOTS-c lasts in human blood, whether it reaches muscle after an injection under the skin, or whether repeated injections provoke antibodies. In October 2026 no US pharmacy may compound it, so there is no labeled product to dose.

+−How do you reconstitute MOTS-c 10mg?

We do not give reconstitution instructions for MOTS-c. A 10 mg vial is a research product: no pharmacy may legally prepare MOTS-c, so the vial has no label anyone stands behind, its content and sterility are unverified, and FDA has treated reconstitution guides and calculators on vendor websites as evidence that such vials are unapproved drugs for people. The arithmetic would be precise about an unknown amount of an unknown substance.

+−Do MOTS-c tablets work?

There is no evidence that they do. In a 2023 mouse study of colitis, MOTS-c injected into the abdomen helped, but MOTS-c given by mouth produced no significant improvement; only a modified version with an added cell-penetrating sequence worked orally. No study has tested oral MOTS-c in people.

+−How often do you inject MOTS-c?

In mice, MOTS-c was injected into the abdominal cavity once a day for 1 to 8 weeks, or three times a week in an old-age experiment. Seller charts say two or three times a week under the skin in four- to eight-week cycles, a schedule no study tested. Nobody has measured MOTS-c's half-life after injection in a human, which is what a schedule would have to be based on.

+−What dose of MOTS-c was used in mice?

The two key papers used 0.5 mg per kilogram a day for 8 weeks to prevent diet-induced obesity, 5 mg per kilogram a day for 7 days to improve insulin sensitivity, and 5 or 15 mg per kilogram a day for 2 weeks, or 15 mg per kilogram three times a week in old age, to improve running capacity. All were intraperitoneal injections.

+−Can a doctor prescribe MOTS-c at a proper dose?

Not in October 2026. MOTS-c is not FDA-approved, and no 503A or 503B pharmacy may compound it: FDA's advisory committee voted 7 to 5 with 2 abstentions in July 2026 to recommend it for the permitted list, against FDA staff advice, but no rule has been issued. A prescription cannot make a non-compoundable substance compoundable.

Sources

1. StudyLee C et al. The mitochondrial-derived peptide MOTS-c promotes metabolic homeostasis and reduces obesity and insulin resistance. Cell Metab 2015;21:443-54. (2015)
2. StudyReynolds JC et al. MOTS-c is an exercise-induced mitochondrial-encoded regulator of age-dependent physical decline and muscle homeostasis. Nat Commun 2021;12:470. (2021)
3. StudyJiang J et al. Orally administered MOTS-c analogue ameliorates dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis by inhibiting inflammation and apoptosis. Eur J Pharmacol 2023;939:175469. (2023)
4. ReviewNair AB, Jacob S. A simple practice guide for dose conversion between animals and human. J Basic Clin Pharm 2016;7:27-31 (Table 1: divide the mouse mg/kg dose by 12.3, from FDA's guidance). (2016)
5. SourceCohBar Inc. CohBar announces positive topline results from the phase 1a/1b study of CB4211 under development for NASH and obesity. Press release of August 10, 2021, filed with the SEC as exhibit 99.2. (2021)
6. NewsPalmer KL, Snow CD, Bass M. PCAC approves four bulk drug substances for the 503A list (BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, MOTS-c). FDA Law Blog, Hyman Phelps & McNamara, July 24, 2026. (2026)
7. NewsKelley Drye. FDA advisory committee recommends several peptides for compounding despite staff opposition: what stakeholders need to know. July 30, 2026. (2026)
8. NewsOrrick. FDA peptide compounding vote: what to watch at the July PCAC meeting (summary of FDA's briefing documents). July 21, 2026. (2026)