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Research compound · not FDA-approved

AHK-Cu

AHK-Cu is three amino acids holding a copper ion. It differs from the better-known GHK-Cu by a single amino acid, and the two get confused constantly.

What matters first

Why people look it up
It is sold mainly for hair — thicker growth, less shedding — as powder for injection or in scalp serums.
What the evidence shows
One study of it exists in the indexed literature, published in 2007. It treated human hair follicles kept alive in a dish, not people. The follicles grew longer, and the cell-death finding the authors chased was not statistically significant. No trial registry lists it.
Dose status
No completed controlled human trial has shown which dose works for AHK-Cu. A few people may have received it in small reports, but that cannot show which dose works. The sections below separate study findings from what people report using.

Medically reviewed by Kenneth Montecillo, MD2026-09-07open the primary sources

What is known about AHK-Cu

AHK-Cu is alanine, histidine and lysine holding a copper ion — one amino acid different from the better-known GHK-Cu, and sold mostly for hair. One study of it exists in the indexed literature, published in 2007. It treated human hair follicles kept alive in a dish and cultured cells from the base of a follicle, and the follicles grew longer. Nobody has been given it in a published study, so no quantity for a person has ever been printed.

AHK-Cu research and regulatory details: evidence quality, approval status, doses, handling, and presentation.
TopicValue
Strongest sourceno human dose shown to work
FDA approvalNot FDA-approved
Typical vials10 mg

Every row links back to a source listed below. These facts are for reference, not a personal recommendation.

What the evidence for AHK-Cu is

No completed controlled human trial has shown which dose works. People may report using a range, but that is not a tested dosing schedule.

no human dose shown to work
What it establishes
Animal studies or small reports can show that researchers are exploring the compound. They cannot show which dose works in people.
What it does not establish
A validated dose, schedule, duration, safety margin, or reliable figure for how long it stays in the body.

If a number appears, it describes what people report using. It is not a trial result or a recommendation. If there is no number, no study has produced one.

Evidence snapshot and shareable image

Evidence snapshot

No human dose shown to work

The fastest way to see what kind of evidence this page is built on.

Regulation
Not FDA-approvedNo US prescribing label
Dose source
No dose listedSee the guide for evidence limits
Safety evidence
No safety findings listedAn empty list does not establish safety
Sources
1 cited sourceMedical review complete · 2026-09-07
Open the shareable evidence image
AHK-Cu at a glance: no human dose shown to work, dosing basis, regulatory status, safety coverage, and cited-source count. These details summarize the available sources; they are not treatment recommendations.

Where AHK-Cu is in clinical trials

No trial of this compound is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov.

That is worth sitting with. Nobody has registered a study to find out whether AHK-Cu works in people, so no result is coming and no date is worth waiting for. Sellers are not waiting for that work either.

A registered study means a sponsor filed a plan and started enrolling. It is not evidence the drug works, and most drugs tested in people never reach a pharmacy. Sponsors write and update these sources themselves; the National Library of Medicine publishes them without checking them.

ClinicalTrials.gov · retrieved 2026-09-27

Every compound we track, and what stage each one has reached →

Regulatory status

FDA has approved nothing under this name and holds no label for it.

No study of this peptide appears on any trial registry, and the single published study used human tissue in a dish rather than people. Do not read across from GHK-Cu: that molecule differs by one amino acid and has two controlled human trials, a long cosmetic-ingredient history and an FDA compounding entry scoped to injection. None of that record belongs to this one.

Anything sold under this name is an unapproved substance no regulator has examined.

Full regulatory tracker →

Where to go next on AHK-Cu

The related pages keep each topic with its evidence.

What is known about AHK-Cu side effects, and what is not

Reading silence on AHK-Cu: a quiet page and a clean one look identical from outside.

Doses per 10 mg AHK-Cu vial in the AHK-Cu reconstitution calculator

The nearest syringe line to the target, and the rounding error it introduces for AHK-Cu.

Every dosing schedule, including AHK-Cu

7 pages carry trial arms — which is a different object from a chart, with AHK-Cu as context

The generic calculator behind the AHK-Cu one

Vial strength and water volume in and the exact mark out, with AHK-Cu as context

What is still being tested, including AHK-Cu

2505 registered studies across 34 compounds, read on 2026-09-27, with AHK-Cu as one example

What the FDA has published on AHK-Cu

What has been decided, and what has only been proposed, including AHK-Cu

Browse AHK-Cu and other compound guides

Find individual compound guides to help you understand AHK-Cu.

The sourcing rules behind every AHK-Cu figure

Why a label band and a trial percentage are never averaged, with AHK-Cu as context

Safety notes

  • One study of this peptide exists in the indexed literature. It was published in 2007 and it treated human hair follicles kept alive outside the body, plus cells cultured from the base of a follicle. Human tissue in a dish is not a person
  • No quantity given to any person has ever been published, in any unit. The only figures in the literature are concentrations of the liquid the follicles sat in — 10⁻¹² to 10⁻⁹ molar — which describe a bath rather than a dose
  • The study’s own headline finding on cell death was not statistically significant. The abstract says so directly, about the reduction in apoptotic cells it set out to measure
  • No AHK-Cu study appears on any trial registry. A ClinicalTrials.gov search on 13 August 2026 returned nothing
  • There is no human safety data at all — not a small amount, none. Nothing has been measured in a person to be reassured or alarmed by
  • This is one amino acid different from GHK-Cu and the two are constantly confused. GHK-Cu’s controlled human trials, cosmetic-ingredient history and FDA compounding entry belong to that molecule and say nothing about this one
  • It is a copper complex, so repeated injection raises a cumulative metal-load question. Copper handling in the body is tightly regulated, and exceeding it is a different kind of risk from a peptide that is simply cleared
  • Quantities for it do circulate. Every one traced led to a page selling it, and a number whose only source is a seller is not evidence

Questions about AHK-Cu

Is AHK-Cu FDA-approved?

No. There is no prescribing label for it, so no approved dose exists — the regulatory status section above has the detail.

How is AHK-Cu taken?

No completed controlled human trial has established a dose, frequency, or route, so no human schedule is published.

How does AHK-Cu differ from the other compounds in this class?

AHK-Cu works through a different system from GLP-1 and amylin drugs. No completed human study has set a dose, so a direct comparison would be misleading.

What is not known about AHK-Cu?

A validated dose, schedule, duration, safety margin, or reliable figure for how long it stays in the body.

1primary source, each with the day we read it — open the documents used on this page