← Shelf·Copper-binding tripeptide·XXXIII.
AHK-Cu.
The copper complex of the tripeptide alanine-histidine-lysine (Ala-His-Lys), catalogued as Copper Tripeptide-3. The lesser-studied structural cousin of GHK-Cu — the same copper-carrier motif, a different leading residue.
Small copper-binding peptides occur naturally in plasma, and GHK, the closely related tripeptide, is a fragment released from collagen. AHK is the synthetic alanine-variant researchers study when they want a defined copper carrier rather than a tissue extract.
Most of what circulates about copper peptides online is cosmetic marketing. The actual AHK-Cu evidence base is small — largely a single in-vitro report from 2007 — and the primary literature is where that limit is plainly visible. We point you there, not at the marketing.
Straight talk
Straight talk: AHK-Cu is barely studied. Its compound-specific evidence is essentially one unreplicated in-vitro paper — no human trial, no approval, and it is not an FDA-approved drug. Whatever a vendor implies by the copper-peptide halo, buy on what the third-party COA documents about the vial in front of you. Documentation, not adjacency.
What the research studies
The literature, not a summary of it.
The AHK-Cu-specific literature is thin and mostly in-vitro; the broader copper-tripeptide record (GHK-Cu, Pickart and colleagues) is considerably deeper. Read it yourself:
Recommended vendor · Amino Club
≥ 99% by HPLC on the current lot — ILS Laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025). Sold by Amino Club as AHK-Cu; the coded product name is the vendor's.
From $34.99
- Third-party tested
- ILS Laboratories · ISO/IEC 17025
- Lot-specific COA
Flash sale at Amino Club — up to 50% off select research compounds, through Nov 8. Your purchase is tracked when you land through this link.
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