A copper peptide your own body makes — and slowly loses with age. That single fact explains most of the research interest.
GHK-Cu is one of the more elegant stories in peptide research, because it isn’t a lab invention at all. It’s a molecule your body already produces — and one whose decline tracks neatly with getting older, which is catnip for skin and longevity researchers.
What it is
The name describes it: GHK is a tripeptide of three amino acids (glycine, histidine, lysine), and Cu is copper, which the peptide naturally binds. Together they form a copper-binding tripeptide found in human plasma. Here’s the hook: plasma levels of GHK are high in youth and fall substantially with age, and a lot of the research is essentially asking what that decline means.
What the research looks at
Skin is the headline area — collagen and elastin production, wound healing, and skin remodelling all feature heavily, which is why GHK-Cu turns up so often in cosmetic-science research. There’s also a fascinating strand of work on gene expression, suggesting the peptide influences a large number of genes at once, several tied to tissue repair and regeneration. Hair research is a third active area.
That gene-expression angle is what lifts GHK-Cu above “just another skincare ingredient” in the research literature.
Where you’ll see it
Because of the skin and recovery overlap, GHK-Cu is a core component of multi-peptide research blends — it’s the “GH” in our GLOW and KLOW formulations.
Handling in the lab
Supplied lyophilised — note the characteristic blue tint once reconstituted, which comes from the copper. Store cold, reconstitute with bacteriostatic water. ≥99% HPLC purity, Janoshik verified on the product page.
In the catalogue
GHK-Cu
Stocked in our UK warehouse at ≥99% HPLC purity, Janoshik independently tested.
