An endogenous copper-binding tripeptide complex studied mainly in skin, matrix remodeling, and wound contexts.
The 1.5-5 mg daily entries are injectable research presets. Human evidence is predominantly topical and does not establish those systemic amounts. This is educational source context, not a protocol or recommendation.
There is no regulator-approved starting dose for this research use. A low-looking number is not automatically safe.
This is the range represented in the in-app protocol library. It describes the source record; it does not validate the regimen.
Higher exposure is not established as more effective. Human pharmacokinetic and long-term safety data may be absent.
Topical percentages, mg/mL wound gels, and injected milligrams are not interchangeable exposure measures.
The cadence represented by the recorded calculator presets.
Published experiments may use a different route, formulation, timing, or population and should not be treated as interchangeable.
No single schedule has been validated across products or research contexts.
No controlled human trial establishes a systemic GHK-Cu injection regimen.
Keep cold, dry, and protected from light according to the manufacturer certificate or validated lab SOP.
Use sterile technique, refrigerate as validated, and avoid repeated freeze-thaw cycles.
Record lot, concentration, preparation date, and the identity/purity documentation used by the lab.
What published studies and recent community write-ups report about amounts, timing and course length. 3 clinical, 3 preclinical and 5 community-reported rows, each linked to its source. These are descriptions of what others report, not instructions, and nothing here is medical advice.
| Context | Dose | Frequency | Route | Course | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinical3 rows | |||||
| Topical gel for diabetic neuropathic foot ulcers, randomized trialPatients with diabetic neuropathic plantar ulcers after sharp debridement (multicenter) | 1 metered dose of GHK-Cu gel (Iamin Gel) per application | Once daily | Topical to the debrided ulcer, with pressure-relieving footwear | Through wound closure (study duration not stated in the abstract)Not applicable | Wound Repair and Regeneration (PubMed)1994 |
| Median ulcer area closure was 98.5% with the gel versus 60.8% with vehicle, closure was about three times faster, and infection incidence was 7% versus 34%, with the largest effect in ulcers over 100 mm2. The study was evaluator-blinded and industry-sponsored, and a later vendor review notes that a larger 511-patient Phase 3 program failed to beat control, ending the drug-approval path. | |||||
| Topical products after CO2 laser resurfacing, randomized study13 patients completing circumoral CO2 laser resurfacing | GHK-Cu skin-care regimen (concentration not stated) versus the same regimen without GHK-Cu, assessed at 12 weeks | Per post-procedure skin-care regimen | Topical | 12 weeksNot applicable | Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery (PubMed)2006 |
| Blinded evaluators and computer analysis found no difference in erythema resolution, wrinkles or overall skin quality between the GHK-Cu and control regimens, although patient-reported satisfaction was higher with GHK-Cu. It is a small negative study that is often left out of promotional summaries. | |||||
| Phase 2 topical gel for acute wound re-epithelialization (recruiting)Healthy adults with paired 5 mm punch-biopsy wounds on the upper arm | 0.1% w/w GHK-Cu gel, about 0.5 g per application | Once daily | Topical under a non-adherent dressing | 14 days of application, follow-up to day 21 and scar assessment at 12 weeksNot applicable | ClinicalTrials.gov2026 |
| Hudson Biotech's split-wound, double-blind, vehicle-controlled study (CuHeal, NCT07437586) started in February 2026 with primary completion planned for 2027. It is the first registered clinical trial of GHK-Cu in years and, like all human work on the compound, uses the topical route. | |||||
| Preclinical3 rows | |||||
| Pig systemic wound-healing dose and human extrapolation (review)Pigs with wounds, dosed systemically | About 1.1 mg/kg GHK-Cu, which the author scales to roughly 75 mg for a human | Not specified in the review | Systemic injection | Duration of the wound modelNot applicable | Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity (PubMed Central)2012 |
| Pickart's 2012 review reports strong systemic wound healing in pigs at about 1.1 mg/kg and places that dose roughly 300-fold below the level at which GHK-Cu lowers blood pressure, while suggesting much lower doses might work because cells respond at 1 nanomolar. The author discovered and commercialized the peptide, and none of these figures has been tested in people. | |||||
| LPS acute lung injury pretreatment (mice)Male C57BL/6 mice, 5-7 per group | 1 or 10 mcg/g (1 or 10 mg/kg) in 100 microliters of saline | Once every 24 hours for 3 days before intratracheal LPS | Intraperitoneal | 3 daysNot applicable | Oncotarget (PubMed Central)2016 |
| The 10 mg/kg pretreatment reduced lung injury scores, neutrophil infiltration, BALF protein and TNF-alpha and IL-6, and raised SOD activity and glutathione, through suppression of NF-kappaB p65 and p38 MAPK signaling. It is a short prevention model in mice with no relevance to cosmetic or repair dosing in people. | |||||
| Bleomycin pulmonary fibrosis treatment (mice)C57BL/6j mice given 3 mg/kg intratracheal bleomycin | 0.2, 2 or 20 mcg/g per day (0.2, 2 or 20 mg/kg) in 0.5 mL PBS | On alternate days | Intraperitoneal | Through day 21 after bleomycinNot applicable | Life Sciences (PubMed)2020 |
| GHK-Cu reduced inflammatory and fibrotic changes, BALF TNF-alpha, IL-6 and myeloperoxidase, collagen deposition and epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers, acting through Nrf2, NF-kappaB and TGF-beta1/Smad pathways. The dose range spans two orders of magnitude and the study reports no toxicology or pharmacokinetics. | |||||
| Community-reported5 rows | |||||
| Clinic 30-day escalation protocol (Beverly Hills) | 1 mg (days 1-15) then 2 mg (days 16-30); working range 0.5-3 mg | Once daily, typically evening | Subcutaneous | 30 days on30 days off | Community resource2026 |
| This clinic guide, published July 2026, reconstitutes a 50 mg vial in 2 mL bacteriostatic water (25 mg/mL) so that 1 mg is 4 units and 2 mg is 8 units, and lists conservative (0.5-1 mg), standard (1 to 2 mg escalation) and higher-intensity (2-3 mg) tiers. It states that the most-studied route is topical, that injectable GHK-Cu is compounded rather than approved, and that its compounding status changed during 2026 with a PCAC review pending. | |||||
| Clinic 30-day bedtime protocol (Florida) | 1 mg (4 units) days 1-15, 2 mg (8 units) days 16-30 | Once daily before bed, at least 2 hours after the last meal | Subcutaneous, rotating abdominal sites | 30 days on30 days off; continuous dosing is described as outside the protocol | Community resource2026 |
| One clinic's nurse-practitioner-written page uses the same 50 mg in 2 mL reconstitution and the same two-step escalation, with the first injection given in clinic and the rest at home. It lists a 0.5-1 mg conservative start and 2-4% topical products as alternatives and recounts that FDA removed GHK-Cu from its compounding Category 1 list in April 2026 after nominations were withdrawn. | |||||
| Wiki protocol table (injection and topical) | 1-2 mg (injection); 0.01-1% creams and serums; 0.5-2% research wound gels; 0.01-0.1% scalp solutions | Once daily (injection; some protocols 3-5 injections per week); topical once or twice daily | Subcutaneous (abdomen or thigh) or topical | 4-8 weeks on (injection); 8-12 weeks for visible topical results; 12-24 weeks for hair2-4 weeks off, with 4 weeks sometimes used between cycles | Community resource2026 |
| Updated January 2026, this wiki attributes the injection figures to practitioner protocols and community use and points out that 1-2 mg a day is far above endogenous plasma GHK of 80-200 ng/mL. It suggests baseline and 4-week serum copper and ceruloplasmin checks for injection use and lists Wilson's disease and copper overload as contraindications. | |||||
| Forum-reported range with loading phases | 1-4 mg per day | Once daily; some protocols describe a higher loading phase then maintenance | Subcutaneous | 4-8 week cyclesNot specified | Community resource2026 |
| One community guide records the 1-4 mg forum range while stating that no peer-reviewed study has tested subcutaneous, intramuscular or intravenous GHK-Cu in humans for any endpoint. It notes the compound's late-2023 placement in FDA compounding Category 2, a February 2026 HHS announcement of intent to restore it to Category 1, and its absence from the WADA list. | |||||
| Reconstitution chart and the origin of the 1.7 mg figure | No established injectable dose; 1.7 mg daily is the figure most often repeated online | Daily, morning (as circulated) | Subcutaneous (as circulated) | 8 weeks on (as circulated)8 weeks off (as circulated) | Community resource2026 |
| A pharmacist-written July 2026 chart gives the dilution math for 50 mg and 100 mg vials (at 25 mg/mL, 1 mg is 4 units) but refuses to call any unit count a dose, because tracing the common 1.7 mg, 8-on/8-off protocol leads only to topical studies, nanomolar cell work or no citation at all. It estimates that 1.7 mg of GHK-Cu carries roughly 267 mcg of copper, about the daily intravenous copper dose used in parenteral nutrition. | |||||
Clinic protocols begin at 1 mg subcutaneously once a day, usually in the evening, from a 50 mg vial reconstituted to 25 mg/mL (4 units). Guides describe a possible sting at the injection site from the copper and treat this phase as establishing tissue exposure.
The dose doubles to 2 mg (8 units) for the second half of the month in the two clinic protocols, which describe the escalation as deliberate rather than a response to side effects. Wiki and forum ranges of 1-4 mg sit around this step.
Protocols that run longer than a month hold 1-2 mg daily, or 3-5 injections a week, to a total of 4-8 weeks. Topical users are told to expect visible change only after 8-12 weeks, and hair protocols run 12-24 weeks; a 4-week serum copper check is suggested for injection use.
Clinic protocols rest for 30 days after a 30-day course; wiki protocols describe 2-4 weeks off after 4-8 weeks on; the widely copied 8-weeks-on, 8-weeks-off pattern has no traceable primary source. The reasons given are copper handling and receptor sensitivity, neither of which has been measured in people.
Every human study applied GHK-Cu to skin: a metered daily gel dose on debrided diabetic ulcers until closure in 1994, a 12-week post-laser regimen in 2006, and 14 days of 0.1% gel in the 2026 Phase 2 trial. No human study has injected GHK-Cu on any schedule, so the course above has no clinical counterpart.
Plus 6 community resources (dosing guides, forum threads and vendor write-ups), reported above but not linked.
GHK-Cu is the copper(II) complex of glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine, a tripeptide first isolated from human plasma by Loren Pickart in 1973 and released from proteins such as albumin and collagen at sites of injury. The copper is held by the glycine amine, the histidine imidazole and a deprotonated amide nitrogen, which is why the complex is described as a non-toxic copper carrier, and its plasma level is reported to fall from about 200 ng/mL at age 20 to 80 ng/mL by 60. Nearly all human evidence is topical: a 1994 vehicle-controlled gel trial in diabetic foot ulcers, a 2006 post-laser study that found no objective benefit, cosmetic cream studies, and a Phase 2 topical wound-gel trial that began recruiting in 2026. Injected GHK-Cu rests on mouse and pig experiments plus clinic and community practice; it is sold as the cosmetic ingredient Copper tripeptide-1 and as a research chemical, was placed in the FDA's compounding Category 2 in 2023 with its status under review again in 2026, and is not named on the WADA list according to the sources below.
These themes describe recurring questions in published research. They are not claims of effectiveness or recommendations for use.
Cell, animal, and limited topical human studies examine closure and matrix remodeling.
Research measures collagen, elastin, glycosaminoglycans, and metalloproteinase balance.
GHK binds copper and may modulate its local availability.
Most human experience concerns topical formulations, not injection.
Study models remain visible so laboratory and animal findings are not mistaken for established human outcomes.
A small diabetic-ulcer study reported benefit, while a post-laser split-face trial found no objective improvement.
Wound models report changes in epithelialization, collagen, and inflammatory markers.
Reviews summarize multiple pathways but contain claims not yet validated in controlled humans.
These amount records are independent from vial strength, reconstitution volume and measuring device. A recorded source is not the same as study backing, and these values are not recommendations.
Sequence, synonyms and registry identifiers as recorded in PubChem, the National Library of Medicine's open chemistry database. Formula, mass and CAS number are summarized at the top of the page.
Gly-His-Lys complexed with one copper(II) ion
GHK-Cu, Copper tripeptide-1 (INCI), Copper peptide, N2-(N-glycyl-L-histidyl)-L-lysine, copper complex, Prezatide copper (CAS 89030-95-5, PubChem CID 71587328, charged-formula record), Iamin (1990s wound gel brand), UNII 6BJQ43T1I9 (prezatide copper), DrugBank DB14683 (prezatide copper)
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Naturally occurring GHK complexed with copper
copper (2S)-6-amino-2-[[(2S)-2-(2-aminoacetyl)azanidyl-3-(1H-imidazol-4-yl)propanoyl]amino]hexanoate
3 curated references, each with its journal, year and study model, plus 6 community resources reported but not linked.