Thymalin

Research-Grade

Thymalin is a polypeptide complex extracted from bovine thymus glands, developed in the 1970s by Vladimir Khavinson at the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology (now the Khavinson Institute). It belongs to the class of 'bioregulators' — short peptides that Khavinson's group proposes act as epigenetic modulators, restoring gene expression patterns associated with younger tissue function. The published Russian clinical data on Thymalin is among the most provocative in the peptide longevity space. A 6-year observational study in elderly patients (n=266, published 2003) reported a 2.0-fold reduction in mortality in the Thymalin + Epithalon group compared to controls, alongside normalization of T-cell subsets and reduced cancer incidence. A 15-year follow-up of a similar cohort reported continued mortality reduction. These results must be interpreted cautiously: the trials were not blinded, sample sizes were modest, and the work has not been independently replicated outside Russian institutions. The bioregulator hypothesis itself — that exogenous short peptides restore tissue-specific gene expression — remains mechanistically unverified by Western standards.