Single component
GHK-Cu
Glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine copper(II)
A tripeptide — glycine, histidine, lysine — bound to a copper(II) ion. The copper is why a reconstituted vial turns blue, and why anything containing GHK-Cu should be kept out of the light. It occurs naturally in human plasma, saliva and urine.
Identity
The molecule.
- Formula
- C14H22N6O4 · Cu
- Molecular weight
- 401.91 · copper complex
- Sequence
- Gly-His-Lys
Solubility
How much water it needs.
Source: MedChemExpress product page
Cross-check: 50 ÷ 401.91 × 1000 = 124.4 mM — matches the stated molarity
Used in the calculatorThe solver treats 50 mg/mL as the ceiling for GHK-Cu and will not return a water volume that puts the solution above it.
Storage
Keeping it.
Refrigerate after reconstitution and keep it dark — the copper complex is light sensitive.
We print no beyond-use date. Why that number is missing
The papers
What the research studied.
Every paper here is on PubMed and you can open it yourself. They all studied GHK-Cu on its own, not in a blend, and mostly in animals.
- Mendias CL, Awan TM2026Sports MedicineReview
Safety and Efficacy of Approved and Unapproved Peptide Therapies for Musculoskeletal Injuries and Athletic Performance
Reviews the pharmacology, safety profile and regulatory status of twelve peptides sold direct to patients — BPC-157, GHK-Cu and TB-500 among them. Describes the market in unapproved compounds as operating largely outside regulatory oversight.
PMID 41966639 → - Siméon A, Wegrowski Y, Bontemps Y, Maquart FX2000Journal of Investigative DermatologyAnimal study
Expression of glycosaminoglycans and small proteoglycans in wounds: modulation by the tripeptide-copper complex glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine-Cu(2+)
Rat experimental wound model plus rat dermal fibroblast cultures. Repeated 2 mg injections of GHK-Cu raised wound-tissue dry weight and total protein, and increased type I collagen and glycosaminoglycan production.
PMID 11121126 →
The name
What else it gets called.
GHK-Cu is the short form; the full name is Glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine copper(II). Suppliers and forum posts use these interchangeably and search engines treat them as separate things, so a figure you found under one of the other names was still about this molecule.
- GHK copper peptide
- copper tripeptide-1
- ghkcu
What we could not source
The gaps, named.
Every figure above says where it came from. These are the ones we went looking for and could not find. Each one ends with what we do about it. Admitting you do not know something and then carrying on regardless is not admitting anything.
A CAS number for GHK-Cu — the official chemical ID
We could not find one printed on a supplier page that we opened ourselves. Numbers floating around in forum posts are not something we are willing to copy.
What we do So we leave the field off this page entirely, rather than fill it in with a number we have not checked.
How long GHK-Cu keeps once mixed, in a normal fridge
Suppliers give you storage conditions for the dry powder in a −20 °C freezer. Nothing we found says anything about a mixed vial sitting at 2–8 °C.
What we do So we print no use-by date and no countdown, anywhere on this site or in anything you download.
Where it appears
Blends that contain GHK-Cu.
Also written as GHK copper peptide · copper tripeptide-1 · ghkcu.
GHK-Cu is a research chemical, not an approved medicine. This page describes the molecule and how to handle it; it makes no claim about what GHK-Cu does. Not medical advice.