GHK-Cu
Purrptide digest
Your skin has a little copper peptide that tells it to stay firm and repair itself. You naturally make less of it every year after your 20s — like a foreman who keeps calling in sick. GHK-Cu is basically a memo to your skin that says 'the foreman is back, act accordingly.' Results: modest but real. Marketing claims: completely unhinged. The actually wild part is it seems to touch a third of your tissue repair genes. The skincare world is not prepared for that conversation.
What this means for you
Solid topical skincare ingredient with actual science behind it — not a scam. The oral supplement version is a different story; the data doesn't follow you past the skin.
Wound healing is the most grounded clinical application here. The systemic anti-aging angle is real but not something you can prescribe for yet.
Something that touches 31% of your tissue repair genes is not a small thing. Almost nobody is studying what that actually means at scale.
The $200 serum market is boring. The wound-healing pharma angle — chronic wounds, surgical recovery — is where nobody's looked yet.
For the nerds
Copper peptide GHK-Cu and human skin remodeling: a new perspective
Journal of Aging Research & Clinical Practice · DOI: 10.14283/jarcp.2015.6
Read full paper on PubMed →