Skin & copper peptides

Copper peptides, skin and hair growth

Copper peptides are short peptides that bind a copper ion. The best known is GHK-Cu, discovered in human plasma in 1973, which stimulates collagen and elastin production in skin cells. For skin, copper peptides were studied mainly in creams; the evidence is summarised in GHK-Cu in research.

On peptides and hair growth, AHK-Cu is the most cited molecule: on isolated hair follicles it promoted elongation and papilla cell division. Clinical evidence is still lacking.

Cosmetic science groups signal peptides such as Matrixyl (a collagen fragment) and neurotransmitter-inhibiting peptides such as SNAP-8 under the label anti-ageing peptides. We sell all of them as research reagents, not as cosmetics.