No abstract

Glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine (GHK) is a tripeptide with affinity for copper(H) ions and was isolated from human plasma.This peptide appears to play a physiological role in wound healing. We report the stimulating effect of GHK-Cu on collagen synthesis by fibroblasts. The stimulation began between IO-'2 and IO-" M, maximized at 10e9 M, and was independent of any change in cell number. The presence of a GHK triplet in the a;(I) chain of type I collagen suggests that the tripcptide might be liberated by proteases at the site of a wound and exert in situ healing effects.