Catestatin
A peptide the body cuts from a larger adrenal protein that puts a brake on the stress hormones, eases blood pressure, protects the heart and kills microbes; widely studied as a disease marker, never given to people as a drug
Catestatin is a short peptide, 21 amino acids long, that the body releases by cutting up a larger protein called chromogranin A, which is stored alongside adrenaline in the adrenal glands and nerves. Its first-known job is a brake: it blocks the release of the stress hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline, which helps keep blood pressure down and shields the heart from overdrive. Since its discovery in 1997 it has turned out to do much more — relaxing blood vessels, calming inflammation, killing bacteria and fungi, and shaping how immune cells behave. Researchers now measure catestatin in the blood as a marker in high blood pressure, heart failure, diabetes and a range of inflammatory diseases. It is an endogenous signalling peptide studied as a research compound — it is not an approved medicine and has not been given to people as a treatment in a published trial.
No established human dose Details ↓
Recommended Dosing
No established human dose
Catestatin is an endogenous peptide that has never been given to people as a treatment. The human studies carded here only measured how much catestatin circulates in blood (for example in atrial fibrillation, rheumatoid arthritis and acne), not what happens when it is administered, and no regulator has approved any dose.
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What is it?
The adrenal glands and sympathetic nerves store the stress hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline (catecholamines) in granules, packed together with a large acidic protein called chromogranin A. When those granules are released, chromogranin A is cut by enzymes into a set of smaller active peptides. One of them, discovered in 1997, is catestatin — named because it is a catecholamine-release inhibitor, a built-in brake on the very hormones it is stored with.
Catestatin is the human chromogranin A fragment running from residue 352 to 372, a 21-amino-acid peptide. It works first as a nicotinic-cholinergic antagonist: it blocks the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor that normally triggers catecholamine secretion, damping the sympathetic ‘fight or flight’ output. Through that and other actions it relaxes blood vessels, which is why low catestatin has been tied to high blood pressure, and it protects heart muscle from the damage that chronic adrenergic overdrive causes.
Its range widened well beyond the cardiovascular system. Catestatin is an antimicrobial peptide — its N-terminal 15-residue piece, cateslytin, kills bacteria, fungi and yeast, and because it attacks microbes physically it has been hard for them to evolve resistance to, which has drawn interest as a template against drug-resistant ‘superbugs’. It is also an immune regulator: it calms inflammatory macrophages, shapes cytokine release, and in animal models of diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, injected catestatin reduced disease. There is evidence that macrophages themselves make catestatin, suggesting a self-regulating anti-inflammatory loop.
Most human research so far is observational: scientists measure how much catestatin circulates in different conditions. Serum catestatin is reported higher in atrial fibrillation and tracks with its severity; higher in rheumatoid arthritis and correlated with disease activity; higher in acne and falling with isotretinoin treatment; and altered in hypertension, heart failure, diabetes and preeclampsia. Because catestatin sits where the nervous, cardiovascular and immune systems meet, these associations have made it a popular candidate biomarker, though they do not by themselves show that giving catestatin would help.
Catestatin is an endogenous peptide and a laboratory research tool, not a medicine. No published study has given catestatin to people as a treatment, it is approved nowhere, and material sold online as ‘catestatin’ is an unregulated research chemical. Nothing here is a dose or a therapy; this page records what the published science says about a peptide the body makes for itself.
Mechanism of Action
Catestatin is a brake the body builds into its own stress response. It is cut from chromogranin A and acts first on the nerve receptor that triggers catecholamine release, with wider effects on vessels, the heart, microbes and immune cells.
Catecholamine-release brake
Catestatin blocks the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor that triggers adrenaline and noradrenaline release from the adrenal gland and nerves, damping sympathetic output (PMID 37242791) — the action it was named for, and the basis of its blood-pressure and cardioprotective effects.
Vascular and cardiac protection
It relaxes blood vessels and shields heart muscle from adrenergic overdrive: in heart cells it blunted norepinephrine-driven hypertrophy and oxidative stress (PMID 31792650), consistent with the low catestatin seen in hypertension and heart failure (PMIDs 36826581, 40141061).
Antimicrobial and immune regulation
Its fragment cateslytin kills bacteria, fungi and yeast (PMID 37242791), and catestatin calms inflammatory macrophages and cytokine release while being made by macrophages themselves (PMID 34844850) — placing it at the junction of the nervous, cardiovascular and immune systems.
Published Research
These are studies of catestatin read from their PubMed abstracts on November 5, 2026. The human record is observational — how much catestatin circulates in atrial fibrillation, rheumatoid arthritis and acne; the mechanistic work shown here is a cell study of its cardioprotective action, with reviews of its antimicrobial and immune-regulating roles. Catestatin has not been given to people as a treatment in any published study.
Serum catestatin in atrial fibrillation
In 73 people with atrial fibrillation and 72 healthy controls, serum catestatin was significantly higher in the AF group and higher still in more severe AF, and it tracked with CHA2DS2-VASc score and NT-proBNP while correlating negatively with how long the arrhythmia had lasted. The authors read this as the sympathetic nervous system’s involvement in AF. An observational levels study, not a trial of giving catestatin.
Serum catestatin in rheumatoid arthritis
A cross-sectional study of 80 people with rheumatoid arthritis and 80 controls found serum catestatin roughly twice as high in the arthritis group, and higher catestatin correlated with longer disease duration and greater disease activity (DAS28) and disability (HAQ). The finding ties catestatin to the inflammatory burden of rheumatoid arthritis, again as a measured marker rather than a treatment.
Serum catestatin in acne vulgaris
A prospective study of 101 people with acne vulgaris and 28 controls found serum catestatin higher in acne and rising with its severity, and it fell significantly after 24 weeks of oral isotretinoin. Because catestatin is an antimicrobial peptide, the authors suggested it may play a part in acne and could act as a marker of the disease and its response to treatment.
Protecting heart cells from adrenergic overdrive
In cultured heart-muscle cells, the stress hormone norepinephrine drove a hypertrophic, fetal-gene, oxidative-stress response; pre-treating the cells with catestatin blunted that response — limiting cell enlargement, troponin accumulation and reactive oxygen species and moderating the gene programmes that norepinephrine switched on, chiefly through the beta-adrenoceptors. The first cell-level look at how catestatin counters adrenergic drive in the heart.
Antimicrobial functions
A review of catestatin as an antimicrobial peptide. Its N-terminal fragment cateslytin kills bacteria, fungi and yeast without destroying red blood cells; an all-D-amino-acid version is more potent, adds to the effect of antibiotics such as amoxicillin and methicillin, and did not trigger bacterial resistance or cytokine release — framing catestatin as a template against drug-resistant infections.
Catestatin and inflammatory macrophages
A review arguing that catestatin both suppresses the inflammatory actions of macrophages and is itself produced by them in an inflammation-dependent way, forming a possible self-regulating anti-inflammatory loop. Because injected catestatin eased disease in mouse models of diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, the authors propose it as a candidate target for inflammatory conditions.
No Established Human Dose
Catestatin is an endogenous peptide that has never been given to people as a treatment. The human studies carded here only measured how much catestatin circulates in blood (for example in atrial fibrillation, rheumatoid arthritis and acne), not what happens when it is administered, and no regulator has approved any dose. Animal studies gave it by injection (for example intraperitoneally in disease models) at amounts that do not carry over to people, so no amount is printed here.
What this rests on: PMID 36826581, PMID 35264632, PMID 39659650, PMID 34844850.
Educational information, not medical advice. The doses on this page come from approved labels, published studies and, where no study exists, amounts reported by users. None is a recommendation for you. An unapproved compound has no established safe or effective human dose, and products sold for “research use only” are not made or tested for people. Talk to a doctor before acting on anything on this site, including before you start, stop or change any medicine or dose. Full medical disclaimer.
What a Buyer Needs to Know
What is sold, how it is mixed, stored and taken, and what is known about its safety, quality and legal status. Each part names its source. Where we have none, it says unknown.
What is sold
Unknown: we hold no label and no published test that says what forms or vial sizes Catestatin is sold in. A vial's own label is a seller's claim, not a source.
Mixing a vial: a worked example
Unknown: no human dose of Catestatin has been established (see No Established Human Dose below), so there is no amount to work out. The reconstitution calculator does the arithmetic for any vial, water and dose.
Storage before and after mixing
Unknown: no label or published stability study on file says how to store Catestatin, before or after mixing. The mixing guide sets out the general rules, with their sources: keep a mixed vial in the fridge, and use it promptly, as the bacteriostatic water label says of any drug dissolved in it. The 28 days often quoted is the limit for an opened multiple-dose vial from a manufacturer, an outer limit set for sterility, not a time a mixed solution has been shown to keep. Nobody has published how long Catestatin stays intact once mixed.
How it is taken
Unknown: with no established human dose, there is no established way of taking Catestatin. What the human studies gave and how is set out under No Established Human Dose.
What to expect, and when
How long it stays in the body: a half-life of not established for humans; an endogenous circulating peptide. After about five half-lives almost none is left.
When effects appear: unknown; no source on this page gives a time to effect for Catestatin. Results reported in the studies are under Published Research.
Source: half-life: PMID 37242791.
Side effects, and when to stop or get help
From the Side Effects section: No human adverse-event data exist: no published study has administered catestatin to people; Human research measures its circulating levels only (PMIDs 36826581, 35264632, 39659650); Its antimicrobial fragment cateslytin was reported non-haemolytic in the laboratory (PMID 37242791); Material sold online as ‘catestatin’ is an unregulated research chemical of unverified content. Full list and cautions ↓
When to stop or get help: unknown; no label or trial on file sets rules for stopping Catestatin. Treat a severe or unexpected reaction as a reason to stop and see a doctor.
Source: the Side Effects section below (“Catestatin is an endogenous peptide that has not been given to people as a drug, so there is no human safety profile; the points below reflect that research status”).
Interactions
Unknown: a PubMed search for human interaction studies of Catestatin (reviewed 2026-11-05) found none. Unknown is not the same as safe to combine.
Every peptide's record, with its source: the interaction matrix.
Checking what you bought
Unknown: no published independent test of Catestatin products is in our lab-results database yet, so how products sold under this name measure up is not known.
To read a certificate of analysis, paste it into the COA decoder. Trust & Verification explains what independent testing can and cannot show.
Legal status
US: Research Chemical (Not a drug: Drugs@FDA and the openFDA label endpoint hold no record, and FDA GSRS and ChEMBL hold no substance record for catestatin (searched November 5, 2026)). Sport: Not on the 2026 List.
Country by country ↓ · Regulatory tracker
Source: this entry's approval status and the WADA Prohibited List, as in Legal Status below.
Side Effects & Contraindications
Reported Side Effects
Catestatin is an endogenous peptide that has not been given to people as a drug, so there is no human safety profile; the points below reflect that research status.
Contraindications & Cautions
Catestatin has no approved use and no label. These points reflect its endogenous, research status.
Legal Status
Catestatin is an endogenous human peptide studied as a research compound; it is not a drug and is not approved in any country.
Frequently Asked Questions
?What is catestatin?
A peptide the body makes by cutting up the protein chromogranin A, which is stored with adrenaline in the adrenal glands. Catestatin (chromogranin A 352-372) blocks the release of adrenaline and noradrenaline, lowers blood pressure, protects the heart, kills microbes and calms inflammation.
?What does it do?
It is a catecholamine-release brake: it blocks the nicotinic receptor that triggers stress-hormone release, relaxing vessels and protecting the heart (PMIDs 37242791, 31792650). Its fragment cateslytin is antimicrobial (PMID 37242791), and it calms inflammatory macrophages (PMID 34844850).
?Has it been tested in people?
Only by measurement, not as a treatment. Studies report that blood catestatin is altered in atrial fibrillation (PMID 36826581), rheumatoid arthritis (PMID 35264632), acne (PMID 39659650), hypertension and heart failure. No published study has given catestatin to people.
?Is it approved or available to buy?
No. Catestatin is not a medicine, has no FDA application or label, and is approved nowhere. Material sold online as catestatin is an unregulated research chemical. Grey Peptides lists no sellers and recommends no source; this page records the published science.
References
- [clinical-trial] Katic J, et al. "Serum Catestatin Concentrations Are Increased in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation." J Cardiovasc Dev Dis, 2023;10(2). PMID: 36826581.
- [clinical-trial] Simac P, et al. "Serum catestatin levels in patients with rheumatoid arthritis." Sci Rep, 2022;12(1):3812. PMID: 35264632.
- [clinical-trial] Yücesoy SN, et al. "Serum Catestatin Levels in Patients with Acne Vulgaris: Single-Center Prospective Study." Skin Appendage Disord, 2024;10(6):490-496. PMID: 39659650.
- [mechanism] Alam MJ, et al. "Catestatin reverses the hypertrophic effects of norepinephrine in H9c2 cardiac myoblasts by modulating the adrenergic signaling." Mol Cell Biochem, 2020;464(1-2):205-219. PMID: 31792650.
- [review] Jati S, et al. "Catestatin: Antimicrobial Functions and Potential Therapeutics." Pharmaceutics, 2023;15(5). PMID: 37242791.
- [review] Muntjewerff EM, et al. "Putative regulation of macrophage-mediated inflammation by catestatin." Trends Immunol, 2022;43(1):41-50. PMID: 34844850.
- [other] PubChem, read November 5, 2026: catestatin (human chromogranin A 352-372), CID 71300629, C104H164N32O27S, MW 2326.7; sequence SSMKLSFRARAYGFRGPGPQL. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/71300629
- [other] Catestatin is a proteolytic fragment of chromogranin A (the CHGA gene product), first described in 1997 as a nicotinic-cholinergic antagonist that inhibits catecholamine release; its biology as a chromogranin-A-derived peptide is summarised in the reviews carded on this page (read November 5, 2026).
- [other] US FDA, Drugs@FDA and the drug label endpoint (openFDA), searched November 5, 2026: no application and no label record for catestatin. It is an endogenous human peptide, not a registered drug; FDA GSRS and ChEMBL hold no substance record for it.
Sources & Citations
The six studies carded above were read from their PubMed records on November 5, 2026. Structure and identifiers come from PubChem (CID 71300629); catestatin’s origin as a chromogranin-A fragment is from the reviews carded here; the absence of US approval and of a drug substance record from Drugs@FDA, openFDA, FDA GSRS and ChEMBL was checked the same day. Grey Peptides sells nothing and links to no vendor.
Medical Disclaimer: This content is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, and nothing here is an instruction to obtain or use any compound. Talk to a licensed clinician about your own situation.