GHK-Cu: doses reported in published research

Sources checked 2026-10-07 · 3 cited studies (0 human, 3 animal, 0 cell culture)

GHK-Cu is the copper(II) complex of the tripeptide glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine. Most dose data come from rodent and cell studies; human studies in the literature mostly test cosmetic mixtures rather than GHK-Cu alone.

No human data. No human studies of GHK-Cu given alone with a stated amount were found in PubMed abstracts; human reports mostly involve topical cosmetic mixtures and are not tabulated.

Animal studies (3)

Animal doses are listed exactly as the studies report them. They are not converted to human amounts here; doses do not translate between species by body weight.

Animal Mice (cigarette-smoke lung model)

Dose as reported: 0.2, 2 or 20 µg/g/day (separate groups), in 100 µl saline
Route: Intraperitoneal
Frequency / duration: On alternate days from the first day of exposure

Source wording: GHK-Cu was injected intraperitoneally at doses of 0.2, 2 and 20 μg/g/day in 100 µl of saline on alternative days from the 1st day after CS exposure.

Zhang Q, Yan L, Lu J et al.. Glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine-Cu2+ attenuates cigarette smoke-induced pulmonary emphysema and inflammation by reducing oxidative stress pathway. Front Mol Biosci 2022. PubMed PMID 35936787 ↗

Animal C57BL/6 mice (cigarette-smoke muscle model); C2C12 cells in vitro

Dose as reported: 0.2 or 2 mg/kg (separate groups)
Route: Not stated in the abstract
Frequency / duration: Not stated in the abstract

Source wording: GHK-Cu treatment (0.2 and 2 mg/kg)

Deng M, Zhang Q, Yan L et al.. Glycyl-l-histidyl-l-lysine-Cu2+ rescues cigarette smoking-induced skeletal muscle dysfunction via a sirtuin 1-dependent pathway. J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle 2023. PubMed PMID 36905132 ↗

Animal Rats (experimental wound-chamber model); rat dermal fibroblasts in vitro

Dose as reported: 2 mg per administration
Route: Into the wound chamber (per the abstract's model description)
Frequency / duration: Repeated; observation to day 22

Source wording: Repeated injections of glycyl-histidyl-lysine-Cu(2+) (2 mg per injection) until the end of the experiment (day 22)

Siméon A, Wegrowski Y, Bontemps Y et al.. Expression of glycosaminoglycans and small proteoglycans in wounds: modulation by the tripeptide-copper complex glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine-Cu(2+). J Invest Dermatol 2000. PubMed PMID 11121126 ↗

Half-life

No half-life value was found in the sources reviewed for this page.

About this page

Every figure above is copied from the cited source; the source wording is shown with each entry. Where a source does not state something, the page says so.
Only abstracts, open-access full texts, registry records and FDA labels were used, so details found only in a paywalled full text may be missing.
This page does not convert doses between species or into other measures, and gives no preparation or handling information.