Research

GHK-Cu

A three-amino-acid peptide (glycine–histidine–lysine) bound to a copper ion. The peptide occurs naturally in human plasma, where it was identified in 1973.

Also published as: Copper tripeptide-1 · Glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine copper(II)

Available in the catalogue

Supplied as research material. Sizes and pricing are on the product page. Availability is not a statement about what a compound does.

What is being investigated

Directions the published work points at, and how far each has actually got. These are open questions, not established effects: most of what looks promising in cells does not replicate in animals, and most of what works in animals does not work in people. Nothing here is a claim about what this compound does for anyone.

  1. Skin remodelling

    The direction with actual human data, and it is topical: small controlled trials of creams containing the tripeptide have measured skin density, fine lines and collagen markers. Formulation trials rather than trials of the molecule.

    Human trials

  2. Wound healing

    Animal work asks whether supplying copper on a carrier that delivers it into tissue speeds closure and improves the quality of the repair, rather than only its speed.

    Animal studies

  3. Broad modulation of repair-associated genes

    Transcriptional surveys report that the peptide shifts expression across a large number of human genes, many of them associated with tissue repair. Which of those shifts matters is not established by the survey itself.

    Cell and tissue studies

  4. Hair follicle stimulation

    Studied in follicle culture and in animal models, mostly alongside the skin work and mostly by the group that identified the peptide.

    Animal studies Cell and tissue studies

Published research

Every reference below was checked against the published record before being listed, with the model each study used.

  1. Pickart & Thaler (1973)Nature New Biology · 243(124):85–7

    The original identification of the tripeptide in human serum, and its effect on the survival of cultured liver cells.

    in vitro, cultured liver cells Source

  2. Pickart & Margolina (2018)International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 19(7):1987

    A survey of transcriptional data reporting that the peptide modulates expression across a large number of human genes, many associated with tissue repair.

    review of gene-expression data Source

Further reading

Longer articles on handling, analysis and what the published work reports.

  • GHK-Cu copper peptide: what the research says

    The copper tripeptide GHK-Cu has the strongest published evidence of any repair peptide here, spanning wound models, gene expression and cosmetic dermatology.

  • How to store research peptides

    Lyophilised peptides at -20°C, reconstituted at 2–8°C, ambient in transit. Why the dry cake tolerates shipping, and what actually degrades a vial.

  • Peptide shelf life and stability

    How long lyophilised and reconstituted peptides keep, and the four things that shorten it: temperature, moisture, light and oxidation. Storage figures included.

  • How to reconstitute lyophilised peptides

    How to reconstitute a lyophilised peptide with bacteriostatic water without damaging it: why you run the liquid down the vial wall and never shake it.

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