In a rat study, giving the peptide thymosin‑alpha‑1 after severe pancreas inflammation helped calm the immune response, lowered harmful inflammation markers, and improved survival, but it didn’t change the usual pancreas enzymes. The work was done in sick animals, not healthy people, so it’s not a ready‑to‑use protocol for everyday health hacking.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of thymosin alpha 1 (TA1) on severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) in rats. Healthy Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 72) were randomly divided into four groups: control group, SAP group, and two TA1 treated groups. SAP was induced by injection of 5% sterile sodium taurocholate into the biliopancreatic duct (BPD), after which TA1 was given subcutaneously at 0 and 2 h at a dose of 100 microg/kg. The rats were killed at 3, 6 and 12 h, respectively. Serum amylase and lipase, interleukin (IL)-1beta, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), pancreatic wet/dry weight ratio and the percentage of CD3/CD4+/CD8+ T cells in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were measured. Next, 30 rats were randomly divided into three groups (each group containing 10 animals): SAP group (S) and two TA1 treated groups. The effects of TA1 on the survival of SAP were assessed 72 h after the induction of SAP. There was no significant change in the serum amylase and lipase levels after TA1 administration. Levels of serum IL-1beta, TNF-alpha and pancreatic wet/dry weight ratio were significantly reduced after TA1-treatment. Application of TA1 significantly balanced CD3/CD4+/CD8+ T cells of PBMC and improved histological scores and the survival rate. TA1 can reduce pancreatic inflammation by regulating differentiation of CD3/CD4+ T cells and decreasing the release of cytokines, thus attenuates pancreatic severity in SAP rats.