Urocortin
The corticotropin-releasing factor relative found in brain and heart, infused into people and measured as a heart-failure marker
Urocortin belongs to the family of the stress hormone corticotropin-releasing factor, but unlike that hormone it binds both of the family's receptors. It is made in the brain, where it suppresses appetite and shapes the stress response, and in the heart, where it protects muscle under strain. A one-hour infusion into healthy men raised stress and heart hormones and lowered the hunger hormone ghrelin. Its blood level rises in heart failure and after a heart attack. Urocortin itself is not a medicine; it has been given to people only in short research infusions.
Used in human trials: 50 micrograms (total), Single infusion, Intravenous (Study: healthy men, and men with stable heart failure) Details ↓
Recommended Dosing
Used in human trials
No manufacturer dose exists for this use: these are amounts given in published trials, not recommendations.
What is it?
Urocortin is a 40-amino-acid peptide discovered as a relative of corticotropin-releasing factor, the hypothalamic hormone that starts the body's stress response. The key difference is receptors: corticotropin-releasing factor acts mainly through the CRF1 receptor, while urocortin binds both CRF1 and CRF2 with high affinity. Because the CRF2 receptor is common in the heart and blood vessels, urocortin drew interest as a cardiovascular peptide. It is sometimes called urocortin 1 to set it apart from the later-found urocortin 2 and urocortin 3, which are separate peptides.
Its first test in people came in 2004. Eight healthy men on a controlled diet received 50 micrograms of urocortin over one hour. Compared with placebo it roughly doubled plasma ACTH and cortisol, raised atrial natriuretic peptide, and suppressed ghrelin, the hormone that drives hunger, which the authors linked to urocortin's known appetite-suppressing effect. No change in blood pressure or kidney function appeared at that dose, and the peptide's plasma half-life was 52 minutes. The same group then gave the same infusion to eight men with stable heart failure and again saw the ACTH and cortisol rise, with a half-life of 54 minutes.
The cardiovascular promise rests heavily on animal work. In sheep with pacing-induced heart failure, a four-day infusion raised cardiac output and urine sodium while lowering filling pressures and a range of vasoconstrictor hormones, effects the human infusions at a low single dose did not reach. Those animal findings, reviewed many times, are why urocortin is described as a candidate heart-failure treatment, but the step to a human treatment has not been made in the sources read.
In people its clearest established use is as a marker. Plasma urocortin is raised in systolic heart failure and, in one study of 299 patients with new breathlessness or swelling, predicted heart failure independent of age, prior heart attack, diabetes and natriuretic peptide levels. Reports differ on whether it adds to natriuretic peptide testing, and one study found it highest in early heart failure and falling as the disease worsened. After a heart attack, a high plasma urocortin within 24 hours was associated with higher one-year mortality.
Urocortin is made outside the heart and brain too. It is produced in the skin, where it was identified by mass spectrometry in keratinocytes and melanoma cells, and in pregnancy it has been studied in the placenta and maternal blood, with raised maternal and fetal levels in pregnancies complicated by high blood pressure, and raised plasma levels used as a marker of endometriosis. Whether these reflect a hormone role or local production is still debated.
Mechanism of Action
Urocortin binds both CRF receptors; in the brain it suppresses appetite and shapes the stress response, and in the heart it is made locally and acts through the CRF2 receptor.
Heart
Made in cardiac muscle and acting through CRF2; animal heart-failure infusions improve output and renal function.
Stress axis
An infusion raises ACTH and cortisol and suppresses the hunger hormone ghrelin.
Blood marker
Plasma urocortin is raised in heart failure and after a heart attack, and predicts outcome.
Published Research
These are studies of urocortin itself, read from their PubMed abstracts: the human infusion studies, the plasma-marker studies in heart failure, heart attack, pregnancy and endometriosis, studies of where the human body makes it, one sheep infusion study, and two reviews. Studies whose subject is urocortin 2 or urocortin 3 belong to those peptides.
First infusion in healthy men
Eight healthy men received 50 micrograms of urocortin intravenously over one hour in a placebo-controlled crossover study. It raised plasma ACTH, cortisol and atrial natriuretic peptide and suppressed ghrelin, with no blood-pressure or kidney effect at that dose; the plasma half-life was 52 minutes.
The same infusion in heart failure
Eight men with stable heart failure received 50 micrograms of urocortin over one hour. It raised ACTH and cortisol compared with placebo, with a half-life of 54 minutes; atrial natriuretic peptide and ghrelin did not change and no haemodynamic or renal effects were seen at that single dose.
Plasma level predicts heart failure
In 299 patients presenting to primary care with breathlessness or swelling, plasma urocortin was higher in the 74 with heart failure and tracked functional class and left-ventricular measures. It predicted heart failure independent of age, previous heart attack, diabetes, hypertension and NT-proBNP.
Elevated, and highest in early heart failure
In 119 patients with heart failure and 212 matched controls, plasma urocortin was elevated in heart failure, more so in men, and fell with increasing severity and age. The best diagnostic performance was in early (class I-II) disease, and combining it with NT-proBNP improved on either alone.
A diagnostic marker, but adds little to proBNP
In 90 patients with systolic heart failure and 90 controls, serum urocortin was higher in the patients, rose with worse functional class and fell with ejection fraction. It discriminated heart failure well, but its value on top of pro-BNP testing was judged questionable.
High early level predicts death after a heart attack
In 66 acute myocardial infarction patients and 21 controls, plasma urocortin was elevated for five days from onset. A high level within 24 hours was associated with higher one-year mortality, and combining it with NT-proBNP improved prognostic performance.
Raised in hypertensive pregnancy
In 70 pregnancies complicated by hypertensive disorders and 70 healthy pregnancies, maternal and fetal plasma urocortin were significantly higher and correlated with Doppler measures of placental blood flow; fetal levels were higher than and correlated with maternal levels.
A preoperative marker of endometriosis
In 97 women undergoing laparoscopy for pelvic symptoms, plasma urocortin was higher in those found to have endometriosis (median 59 vs 34 pg/mL). A cutoff above 46 pg/mL detected endometriosis against no lesions with 76% sensitivity and 88% specificity, but could not separate it from other conditions.
Not found in the pregnant circulation
A specific radioimmunoassay did not detect urocortin in chorionic villi, fetal membranes or the plasma of pregnant or non-pregnant women, and found no pregnancy-related pattern, arguing against urocortin being the ligand that frees corticotropin-releasing hormone in pregnancy.
Widely expressed in the human brain
Urocortin-like immunoreactivity was detected throughout the human brain at about 3 pmol per gram with little regional difference, and urocortin messenger RNA was found in every region examined, a broader distribution than corticotropin-releasing hormone.
The skin makes it
Urocortin was detected by radioimmunoassay, HPLC and mass spectrometry in human and mouse skin and in cultured keratinocytes and melanoma cells, and the urocortin gene was amplified and sequenced from these sources, showing the skin produces the peptide locally.
Made in the human heart
In human heart tissue obtained at autopsy, urocortin and the CRF2 receptor were found in cardiac muscle of all four chambers, with the highest urocortin concentration in the left ventricle, while corticotropin-releasing factor was very low or undetectable, suggesting local action through CRF2.
Sustained benefit in sheep heart failure
In eight sheep with pacing-induced heart failure, a four-day infusion of urocortin raised cardiac output and stroke volume, lowered filling pressures and peripheral resistance, suppressed renin, aldosterone, endothelin and vasopressin, and increased sodium excretion and creatinine clearance.
Urocortin in cardioprotection
A review of the urocortin family in ischaemia and cardiac remodelling, summarising animal and early clinical evidence that the peptides improve cardiovascular function through several pathways and arguing for their therapeutic potential in heart failure.
Urocortin and the brain
A review of urocortin's central actions: suppression of food intake through CRF receptors, roles in anxiety, learning, memory and body temperature, and its transport across the blood-brain barrier, with blood levels given as 13 to 152 pg/mL.
Dosing Data
Urocortin is not approved anywhere as a medicine. This is the research infusion used in the published human studies, as stated in their abstracts; it was not a treatment course.
Educational information, not medical advice. Each dose above is tagged with its source: an approved label, a published human study, animal data, or 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 Urocortin is sold in. A vial's own label is a seller's claim, not a source.
Mixing a vial: a worked example
No worked example: none of the doses on this page is a fixed amount in mg or mcg injected under the skin or into a muscle (the routes given are: intravenous). There is no home-mixing step to show. The reconstitution calculator does the arithmetic for any vial.
Source: the route and amount of each dose row in Dosing Data below.
Storage before and after mixing
Unknown: no label or published stability study on file says how to store Urocortin, 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 Urocortin stays intact once mixed.
How it is taken
As it was given in human studies: Intravenous (Single infusion; Study: healthy men, and men with stable heart failure).
For injection technique, sites and needle disposal, see the mixing guide.
Source: Used in human trials: the route and frequency of each row in Dosing Data below.
What to expect, and when
How long it stays in the body: a half-life of about 52-54 minutes (plasma, one-hour infusion). After about five half-lives almost none is left.
How long the doses were given: Study: healthy men, and men with stable heart failure: Over 1 hour.
When effects appear: unknown; no source on this page gives a time to effect for Urocortin. Results reported in the studies are under Published Research.
Source: half-life: PMID 15001641; Used in human trials, the duration of each row in Dosing Data below.
Side effects, and when to stop or get help
From the Side Effects section: No blood-pressure or kidney effects at the 50-microgram dose in healthy men or in heart failure (PMIDs 15001641, 15882144); Expected rises in ACTH and cortisol, the hormones the infusion stimulates; No safety data beyond single one-hour infusions. Full list and cautions ↓
When to stop or get help: unknown; no label or trial on file sets rules for stopping Urocortin. Treat a severe or unexpected reaction as a reason to stop and see a doctor.
Source: the Side Effects section below (“From the short infusion studies above, which reported little on safety”).
Interactions
Unknown: a PubMed search for human interaction studies of Urocortin (reviewed 2026-10-30) 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 Urocortin 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; it checks the measured mass against Urocortin's expected mass, 4,696.3 Da, from this entry's molecular data. Trust & Verification explains what independent testing can and cannot show.
Legal status
US: Research Chemical (Not a medicine anywhere in the sources read). Sport: Prohibited (S0 catch-all).
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
From the short infusion studies above, which reported little on safety.
Contraindications & Cautions
No product label exists. These cautions follow from the evidence.
Legal Status
Urocortin is a research peptide; it is not approved as a medicine anywhere in the sources read.
Frequently Asked Questions
?What is urocortin?
A 40-amino-acid peptide related to the stress hormone corticotropin-releasing factor, but binding both of the family's receptors. It is made in brain, heart and other tissues.
?What happens when it is infused?
In healthy men a one-hour infusion of 50 micrograms raised ACTH, cortisol and atrial natriuretic peptide and suppressed the hunger hormone ghrelin, with no blood-pressure change at that dose.
?Is urocortin a heart-failure treatment?
No. Animal studies show strong cardiac and renal benefits, but in people it has only been given as a single research infusion and is used mainly as a blood marker.
?How long does it last in the blood?
Its plasma half-life was about 52 minutes in healthy men and 54 minutes in men with heart failure.
?Is it the same as urocortin 2 or urocortin 3?
No. Those are separate peptides of the same family, each covered in its own entry where present on the site.
?Why is it measured in heart failure?
Plasma urocortin rises in heart failure and after a heart attack and can predict outcome, though whether it adds to natriuretic peptide testing is debated.
References
- [clinical-trial] Davis ME, et al. "Urocortin-1 infusion in normal humans." J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2004;89(3):1402-9. PMID: 15001641.
- [clinical-trial] Davis ME, et al. "Effect of urocortin 1 infusion in humans with stable congestive cardiac failure." Clin Sci (Lond), 2005;109(4):381-8. PMID: 15882144.
- [clinical-trial] Wright SP, et al. "Plasma urocortin 1 in human heart failure." Circ Heart Fail, 2009;2(5):465-71. PMID: 19808377.
- [clinical-trial] Ng LL, et al. "Plasma urocortin in human systolic heart failure." Clin Sci (Lond), 2004;106(4):383-8. PMID: 14651473.
- [clinical-trial] Yildirim E, et al. "Evaluation of the clinical utility of urocortin 1 in systolic heart failure." Kardiol Pol, 2014;72(5):452-8. PMID: 24408067.
- [clinical-trial] Phrommintikul A, et al. "Plasma urocortin in acute myocardial infarction patients." Eur J Clin Invest, 2010;40(10):874-82. PMID: 20636379.
- [clinical-trial] Florio P, et al. "High maternal and fetal plasma urocortin levels in pregnancies complicated by hypertension." J Hypertens, 2006;24(9):1831-40. PMID: 16915033.
- [clinical-trial] Maia LM, et al. "Plasma urocortin-1 as a preoperative marker of endometriosis in symptomatic women." Gynecol Endocrinol, 2018;34(3):202-205. PMID: 28925754.
- [pubmed] Glynn BP, et al. "Urocortin in pregnancy." Am J Obstet Gynecol, 1998;179(2):533-9. PMID: 9731865.
- [pubmed] Takahashi K, et al. "Regional distribution of urocortin-like immunoreactivity and expression of urocortin mRNA in the human brain." Peptides, 1998;19(4):643-7. PMID: 9622018.
- [pubmed] Slominski A, et al. "The skin produces urocortin." J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2000;85(2):815-23. PMID: 10690896.
- [pubmed] Kimura Y, et al. "Expression of urocortin and corticotropin-releasing factor receptor subtypes in the human heart." J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 2002;87(1):340-6. PMID: 11788672.
- [pubmed] Rademaker MT, et al. "Four-day urocortin-I administration has sustained beneficial haemodynamic, hormonal, and renal effects in experimental heart failure." Eur Heart J, 2005;26(19):2055-62. PMID: 15961410.
- [review] Calderón-Sánchez EM, et al. "Urocortin Role in Ischemia Cardioprotection and the Adverse Cardiac Remodeling." Int J Mol Sci, 2021;22(22). PMID: 34829997.
- [review] Pan W, et al. "Urocortin and the brain." Prog Neurobiol, 2008;84(2):148-56. PMID: 18078706.
- [other] UniProt P55089 (UCN_HUMAN), urocortin; the mature 40-residue peptide (DNPSLSIDLTFHLLRTLLELARTQSQRERAEQNRIIFDSV) is amidated at the C-terminus. Read October 30, 2026. https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P55089/entry
Sources & Citations
Every study on this page was read from its PubMed record on October 30, 2026. Regulatory status comes from Drugs@FDA (openFDA) and the EMA medicines list, read the same day. Grey Peptides sells nothing and links to no vendor.
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