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Compound guide
KPV: what the research covers
Three amino acids: lysine, proline, valine. It is the carboxy-terminal fragment of alpha-MSH, and it carries the anti-inflammatory activity of the parent hormone without its pigmentary effects.
What KPV is
Alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone is a thirteen-residue peptide with two fairly separate reputations: it drives pigmentation through melanocortin receptors, and it suppresses inflammation. KPV is the last three residues — Lys-Pro-Val — and the published position is that this fragment retains much of the anti-inflammatory activity while losing the pigmentary action.
Mechanistically that separation is interesting because KPV appears to act at least partly inside the cell rather than at a surface melanocortin receptor. Reported routes include interference with NF-κB signalling and, in intestinal epithelium, uptake through the peptide transporter PepT1, which concentrates it in exactly the tissue where much of the inflammatory work has been done.
Three residues is about as small as a bioactive peptide gets, and that brings advantages: it is cheap to synthesise, unusually stable, and small enough to cross barriers that exclude larger molecules.
Where the literature sits
Most published KPV work is in gut inflammation models — colitis in particular — and in skin, where topical application and anti-inflammatory readouts dominate. A smaller strand examines antimicrobial activity, which it shares with its parent hormone and with the other antimicrobial peptide in this catalogue, LL-37.
The comparison that clarifies KPV most is with the full melanocortin agonists. Melanotan II engages the melanocortin receptor family broadly and is studied for pigmentation and for sexual behaviour; KPV, from the same parent sequence, is studied for neither. Fragment versus full agonist is the distinction that organises the literature here.
How Amino Club supplies it
Supplied lyophilised in sealed vials as KPV, specified at 99% purity or better by HPLC with identity confirmed by mass spectrometry and released against the batch Certificate of Analysis, as set out on the lab testing page.
A tripeptide is among the more robust things in a peptide catalogue: the powder tolerates ambient transit comfortably and solutions are less fragile than those of longer sequences, though laboratories still keep the sealed vial below −18 °C for long-term storage and prepare working solutions fresh. Because the molecule is small, purity has an outsized effect on a quantitative assay — a few percent of a related impurity is a larger molar fraction here than it would be in an eighty-residue protein. Diluents are under reconstitution supplies.
Related reading
KPV belongs to the tissue repair research peptides group with BPC-157, TB-500, ARA-290, LL-37 and VIP, and its melanocortin parentage links it to Melanotan II in the cosmetic group.
Every guide is indexed in the research library. Certificates and storage are covered on the FAQ, quantity pricing through bulk and wholesale.
Research use only
KPV supplied by Amino Club is a laboratory reference material. It is not a medicine, not a supplement, and not for human or veterinary use, and no dosing guidance or administration protocol is provided. The full terms are in the research use policy.