AHK-Cu
Research highlights
- ✓Copper-binding tripeptide (Ala-His-Lys-Cu)
- ✓Studied for hair-follicle and dermal-papilla biology
- ✓Investigated alongside GHK-Cu in skin and tissue research
- ✓50mg research vial
What is AHK-Cu?
AHK-Cu is a copper-binding tripeptide (Ala-His-Lys) studied in hair and skin research, closely related to GHK-Cu. Supplied strictly for laboratory research use only.
What purity is guaranteed?
Where we hold an independent Janoshik report for a compound we publish it in full - batch number, purity and a verification key you can check against the lab yourself. Where we do not hold one the product is marked research grade and we say so, rather than claim a report we cannot produce.
AHK-Cu, explained
The short version: AHK-Cu is a copper-bound tripeptide (alanine, histidine, lysine) and a close cousin of GHK-Cu. Its published research comes down to a single 2007 lab study on human hair follicles.
What it is
Take GHK-Cu, swap the glycine at the front for alanine, and you have AHK-Cu. That one amino acid is the whole structural difference between them. Like its cousin, the peptide holds a copper ion. GHK occurs naturally in human plasma; AHK-Cu is known almost entirely from hair research.
What has been studied
The one paper came from the dermatology department at Seoul National University and was published in Archives of Pharmacal Research in 2007 (Pyo and colleagues). The team kept human hair follicles alive outside the body and also grew dermal papilla cells, the specialised cells at the base of each follicle that steer hair growth.
At very low concentrations, AHK-Cu made the follicles lengthen and the papilla cells multiply. It also shifted markers of programmed cell death in the cells' favour: the Bcl-2 to Bax ratio went up and cleaved caspase-3 went down. A direct count of dying cells fell as well, but not by a statistically significant margin. The authors proposed that it supports follicle growth by helping papilla cells divide and survive.
Where the evidence stops
That is the full published record we could find: one lab, one paper, tissue in a dish. We found no animal study and no human scalp trial. GHK-Cu's results don't transfer automatically either, because changing even one amino acid can change how a peptide behaves in the body. Any claim about AHK-Cu and thinning hair in people is running well ahead of the data.
Handling and storage
It arrives as a freeze-dried powder. Once bacteriostatic water goes in, it belongs in the fridge. Our reconstitution and storage guide covers the details, and the calculator does the maths.
One 2007 study on follicles in a dish. Interesting biology, nowhere near a proven hair treatment.
Sources (checked 7 October 2026)
For research use only. Not for human consumption. Nothing on this page is medical advice.
Reviews from people who ordered AHK-Cu
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★★★★★
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Nico V. · 6 Oct 2026
★★★★★
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Kholofelo L. · 30 Sep 2026
★★★★
Small checkout glitch, but after following up it was quickly sorted out and everything went smoothly from there. Good customer service - thank you.
Tonia K. · 30 Sep 2026
★ 4.8 across all 16 JP Research reviews, good and bad. See them. Every reviewer gets R100 store credit, whatever they rate.
