GHK-Cu

Clinical maturity: Cosmetic human studies for topical use; no established systemic clinical use

This is the registry's clearest example of route confusion. Small human cosmetic studies apply to topical creams and serums. They say nothing about injecting GHK-Cu — a different exposure, with no controlled human evidence and an explicit FDA compounding safety flag.

Route availability is not evidence of efficacy, and evidence from one route does not transfer to another. The Registry never provides dosing or sourcing information.

A naturally occurring copper-binding tripeptide found in plasma, saliva and urine, used in cosmetics for skin remodelling.

• Reduces wrinkles and improves skin firmness
• Regrows hair
• Systemic anti-ageing and wound healing when injected

Topically, there are small human cosmetic studies suggesting improvements in skin appearance — modest effects, small samples, often industry-linked, but not nothing. Systemic injectable use is a completely different exposure with essentially no controlled human evidence. Treating those two as the same claim is the main error people make here.

• Small randomised and controlled cosmetic studies of topical formulations reporting improvements in skin appearance.
• No controlled human trials of injectable systemic administration for anti-ageing.

• Cell and animal studies of collagen synthesis, wound healing and antioxidant effects.
• Gene-expression work suggesting broad modulation of repair pathways.

Animal and cell findings are Level 1–2 evidence.

• Delivers copper, a cofactor for lysyl oxidase and other enzymes involved in collagen and elastin cross-linking.
• Stimulates dermal fibroblast activity and extracellular matrix remodelling.

• Topical use is generally well tolerated in cosmetic studies.
• Systemic copper-containing peptide administration raises copper-balance questions that have not been studied properly in humans.

Widely used as a cosmetic ingredient in topical skincare. Injectable systemic use is not an approved medical treatment, and the FDA's 503A Category 2 list flags GHK-Cu as a bulk substance raising significant safety risks for compounding — a listing aimed squarely at injectable use.

• Larger independent topical trials with objective endpoints.
• Any human safety data for systemic administration.

• Regulatory / labelFDA — Bulk drug substances used in compounding (Category 2: significant safety risks)

Source hierarchy: regulatory documents and trial registries first, peer-reviewed work next, sponsor material flagged as non-independent. We never use supplier or clinic marketing as evidence, and where a verified source has not yet been curated we say so rather than inventing one.

1. 2026-06-22

   Baseline entry: topical and systemic evidence separated into distinct positions.

   L3Early humanRating movedBaseline entry
   Small topical cosmetic studies support modest skin-appearance effects. Injectable systemic use has no controlled human evidence and is rated independently.