GHK-Cu and the one-third-of-the-genome result (Pickart & Margolina, 2018)

Altara Lab Notes · Issue 2

What did Pickart & Margolina (2018) find?

Pickart & Margolina, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2018. A review that mined Connectivity Map gene-expression data to ask what GHK does across the genome, alongside earlier lab findings.

• Computational (in silico): About 31.2% of human genes were stimulated or suppressed by GHK by 50% or more.
• Direction: GHK increased expression in 59% of those genes and suppressed it in 41%.
• Rats: The paper cites wound studies in healthy rats in which a collagen dressing with incorporated GHK increased collagen 9-fold.
• Cell culture: In fibroblasts from COPD patients, GHK was reported to restore fibroblast function, with elevated integrin beta 1 expression.

Why do researchers study GHK-Cu?

• GHK is a naturally occurring tripeptide with a strong affinity for copper, found in human plasma.
• The gene data frames it as a possible broad regulator of tissue-remodeling and repair-related pathways, a hypothesis for further study.

What are the limitations of this study?

The headline numbers come from a computational analysis of gene-expression databases, not from people. The other findings are from rats and cultured cells; the rat result involved a GHK-containing wound dressing, not GHK alone. A gene-expression change does not by itself establish a functional effect, and none of this establishes effects in humans.

Source

Pickart & Margolina, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2018. Read the full paper

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