GHK-Cu

Mechanism

Delivers copper to cells and shifts gene expression towards collagen, elastin, and glycosaminoglycan synthesis while damping inflammatory signalling. It also down-modulates MMP activity.

Reported effects

What sources associate with this compound. Reported categories, not outcomes we have graded — each would need its own citation and rung.

• Skin remodelling
• Scar quality
• Hair support
• Collagen synthesis support
• Wound repair context
• Antioxidant signalling research

Reconstitution

mass ÷ diluent = concentration; dose ÷ concentration = volume; volume × the syringe factor = units on the barrel (100 for U-100, 40 for U-40). Run your own numbers.

Half-life, storage & sport

Elimination half-life

not on file — no primary pharmacokinetic study found.

Storage

Reconstituted: GHK-Cu stable in water and pH 4.5-7.4 buffers for at least 2 weeks at 60C; susceptible to basic and oxidative stress (stability-indicating HPLC preformulation study). — source. Preformulation stability study (Pharm Dev Technol); no cold-chain shelf-life claim on file.

In sport (WADA 2026)

not recorded as a yes or no — not named; S0 catch-all likely for injectable use at all times the list Not named anywhere on the 2026 list. USADA's cosmetics guidance lists topical tripeptide-1 (GHK, non-palmitoylated) among peptides that are not prohibited; injectable copper-GHK has no human therapeutic approval, so S0 would capture it. Confirm per case on GlobalDRO.

No half-life is on file for this compound, and the figures circulating in its place do not agree with each other. 3 separate accounts are recorded on this page, read from 11 pages between them: 1 to 2 hours, approximately 30 minutes and 0.5 to 1 hour. They run from 30 min to 2 h, a factor of 4. No curve is drawn below, because drawing one would mean choosing a winner among them and publishing that choice as though something had measured it. Read what each one says, and where it was read from.

Reported adverse effects

• Injection site irritation

  Reportedonset: Immediatereported reversible

• Copper accumulation with prolonged high-dose use

  Mechanism-linkedonset: Monthsreported reversible

Literature on file 7

• human observational
  An Open-Label Study to Assess the Efficacy and Tolerability of a Multifunctional, 10-Peptide Face and Neck Serum to Address Skin Quality. graded on: indexed as a clinical trial, design not stated — “Clinical Trial”
• review or editorial
  Peptides: Emerging Candidates for the Prevention and Treatment of Skin Senescence: A Review. graded on: indexed as "review-article" - secondary literature, not a study — “review-article”
• in vitro
  Multi-Target Restoration of Dermal Elastic Fibers Through Elastin Upregulation, Elastase Suppression, and Scaffold Reinforcement. graded on: dermal cell culture, elastin and elastase assays — read from the abstract — “abstract review”
• in vitro
  A Torilis japonica Extract-GHK-Cu Complex Attenuates Th2 Cytokines and Promotes Keratinocyte Recovery: A Potential Antioxidant Strategy for Atopic Dermatitis. graded on: TNF-alpha/IFN-gamma stimulated keratinocyte model — read from the abstract — “abstract review”
• human observational
  Efficacy of Hair Mesotherapy With Biomimetic Peptides and Micronutrients in Patients With Androgenetic Alopecia: A Retrospective Observational Study graded on: an observational human design — “Retrospective”

Not graded

2 citations whose study design could not be read from the title. Left ungraded rather than guessed at.

• not graded
  NCT07437586: A Phase 2, Randomized, Double-Blind, Vehicle-Controlled, Split-Wound Study of Topical GHK-Cu (Copper(II)-Peptide Complex) Gel to Accelerate Re-Epithelialization of Standardized Acute Skin Wounds in Healthy Adults graded on: NCT07437586 is recruiting and has posted no results - a registration, not a reported outcome — “NCT07437586”
• not graded
  Multifunctional copper tripeptide-1/nanocellulose composite hydrogels (2026)

What is circulated not evidence 11

Claims passed around in community guides and vendor copy, recorded because they circulate — not because they are true. Each is shown with the page it was read from and what this record actually holds. Checked 2026-08-26.

• unverified community data benefit common nothing on file either way

  It is circulated that GHK-Cu with microneedling produced 26.5% median hair regrowth and a 93% reduction in shedding after five sessions.

  After 5 sessions: 26.5% median hair regrowth, 93% shedding reduction, zero adverse events

  On the record The record lists "Hair support" as a benefit with no trial behind it: no hair study of any design appears in its citations. The circulated figures are attributed on that page to a 2025 study the record does not carry.

  Source 1

• unverified community data benefit occasional nothing on file either way

  A 7% increase in hair count at 16 weeks from a 0.02% standalone topical lotion circulates as the topical-only benchmark.

  A 2025 Japanese trial tested 0.02% peptide lotion as standalone topical treatment: 7% increase in hair count after 16 weeks.

  On the record Nothing on file. The corpus holds skin remodelling, scar and wound-repair study contexts; no topical hair trial is recorded.

  Source 1

• unverified community data dose occasional nothing on file either way

  A concentration protocol — 0.05% after microneedling, full strength only on intact skin, because open channels raise absorption ten-fold — circulates as guidance, along with a community-named adverse effect ("copper uglies").

  Use 0.05% after microneedling, full-strength only on intact skin

  On the record The record holds topical and subcutaneous routes and an injectable dose of 1-2.5 mg three times weekly, which it marks unverified. Nothing on file gives a topical concentration, records microneedling absorption, or names the community's "copper uglies" effect.

  Source 1

• unverified community data stacking common nothing on file either way

  The community positions GHK-Cu as complementary to finasteride and minoxidil rather than a replacement, since it does not act on DHT.

  No amount of GHK-Cu replicates a 60% reduction in scalp DHT.

  On the record The mechanism on file is collagen and elastin gene expression shifts, MMP down-modulation and copper delivery, with no DHT or androgen pathway in it, which is consistent with the circulated framing. Nothing on file records stacking.

  Source 1

• unverified community data dose common contradicts the record

  Daily subcutaneous GHK-Cu at about 1.7 mg, eight weeks on and eight weeks off, is the injectable protocol given in community dosing charts.

  Community protocols describe 1.7 mg subcutaneous daily in the morning for 8 weeks, then 8 weeks off.

  On the record The record holds 1-2.5 mg per administration three times weekly on a 6-8 week cycle, and marks it unverified. The circulated protocol is daily rather than three times weekly, so weekly exposure is roughly double the top of the range on file.

  Source 1 · Source 2

• unverified community data sourcing occasional agrees with the record

  Dosing guides themselves state that the injectable route has no human trials behind it and that every positive human study of GHK-Cu was topical.

  Topical GHK-Cu has extensive clinical research. Injectable GHK-Cu has no human trials.

  On the record The record grades GHK-Cu a human observational study, and the sole basis for that grade is NCT07437586, a split-wound study of 0.1% topical GHK-Cu gel still recruiting and with no results. The only human anchor is topical, and it is a plan rather than a result, while the route reads as one string, "Topical / Subcutaneous", that does not separate the evidence behind each.

  Source 1

• unverified community data side effect common agrees with the record

  Copper accumulation from repeated injection is named as a theoretical risk, with baseline copper and ceruloplasmin testing suggested for long courses.

  Baseline copper/ceruloplasmin testing is described in community protocols for long-term injectable use

  On the record The record lists copper accumulation with prolonged high-dose use as a side effect. No threshold, no monitoring test and no definition of "prolonged" or "high-dose" is on file.

  Source 1

• unverified community data storage common nothing on file either way

  Reconstitution recipes circulate as fixed conversions, for example a 50 mg vial in 3 mL so that 1.7 mg reads as ten units on an insulin syringe.

  1.7 mg/day SubQ = 10 units from a 50mg vial in 3mL. Daily dosing, 8 weeks on/8 off

  On the record Nothing on file tells you how to reconstitute GHK-Cu. The storage record is a preformulation stability finding, stable in water and pH 4.5-7.4 buffers for at least two weeks at 60C, which speaks to chemical stability and not to how a vial should be mixed or how long a mixed vial keeps refrigerated.

  Source 1

• unverified community data half life common nothing on file either way

  A plasma half-life of one to two hours is stated, appearing across dosing charts, vendor pages and one patent application.

  It has a very short elimination half-life of 1.5-2 hrs.

  On the record No half-life for GHK-Cu is on file, in any species. This is the figure most pages give, and it is not one figure: the same claim is stated as one to two hours, half an hour to two hours, an hour and a half to two, a hundred and five minutes, two to four hours and four hours across the pages carrying it. None names a study. A search of PubMed and Europe PMC returns no pharmacokinetic study of GHK or GHK-Cu reporting a half-life, by any route, in any species, and two of the pages selling it say so themselves.

  Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5 · Source 6

• unverified community data half life occasional nothing on file either way

  A plasma half-life of about thirty minutes is stated for free GHK, with pages adding that binding to albumin extends the effective figure to four to six hours.

  This figure comes from studies on plasma peptide turnover rather than from a large dedicated GHK-Cu pharmacokinetic RCT, so treat it as an estimate with meaningful uncertainty.

  On the record No half-life for GHK-Cu is on file. This is the minority figure, and the pages carrying it are the ones most willing to say it is an estimate: one states outright that it is read off general plasma peptide turnover rather than off any measurement of this compound. It is also the closest circulating number to the only figure the compound's own discoverer ever published, reached by a different route.

  Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3

• unverified community data half life isolated nothing on file either way

  Half an hour to an hour in plasma is stated by Pickart in two 2014 reviews, and is the earliest published statement of a half-life for this compound.

  GHK has a half-life of about 0.5 to 1 hour in plasma

  On the record No half-life for GHK-Cu is on file, and this sentence is why the others exist. Pickart states it twice in one year with no citation attached to the half-life clause in either paper - the references closing that sentence belong to the rat tissue-repair studies it goes on to describe, not to the figure. No species, route, assay or number of subjects is given anywhere in either. His two better known later reviews state no half-life at all. A figure with no measurement behind it does not acquire one by being printed in a journal, and the range circulating now runs from half an hour to four hours because the root of it was never a measurement to begin with.

  Source 1 · Source 2

Identity

PubChem CID 71587328 computed 3D conformer

Skeletal formulathe canonical depiction

Drawn by PubChem from CID 71587328, the identifier on this record.

Molecular weight

402.92

Molecular formula

C14H23CuN6O4+

CAS number

89030-95-5

PubChem CID

71587328

InChI key

NZWIFMYRRCMYMN-ACMTZBLWSA-M

Sequence

GHK

SMILES

C1=C(NC=N1)C[C@@H](C(=O)N[C@@H](CCCCN)C(=O)[O-])NC(=O)CN.[Cu+2]

InChI

InChI=1S/C14H24N6O4.Cu/c15-4-2-1-3-10(14(23)24)20-13(22)11(19-12(21)6-16)5-9-7-17-8-18-9;/h7-8,10-11H,1-6,15-16H2,(H,17,18)(H,19,21)(H,20,22)(H,23,24);/q;+2/p-1/t10-,11-;/m0./s1

Classified as

Subcutaneousroute

This is the route the reconstitution arithmetic assumes. Mass divided by diluent volume gives concentration, dose divided by concentration gives volume, and volume in mL multiplied by 100 gives units on a U-100 barrel: 5 mg in 2 mL is 2.5 mg/mL, and 0.25 mg comes out at 0.1 mL, which is 10 units.

Topicalroute

Cosmetic records state a percentage in the jar. That is a concentration in the vehicle, not an amount delivered to living tissue, and the two are kept apart deliberately here.

Also called

• GHK-Cu
• Copper Tripeptide-1

Listed prices 476

What 224 shops we track listed for GHK-Cu, read from their own public catalogues on 2026-09-14. We take no commission on these and they are not ranked by any payment — how vendors are scored.

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