Nest Aesthetics: the work beneath skin

GHK-Cu and skin

A nest suggests something assembled: material gathered, worked and made capable of supporting life. That is a useful way into the skin literature. The word aesthetics usually sends the conversation toward the surface; my attention goes to the work underneath it.

In a human fibroblast culture experiment, GHK-Cu increased collagen synthesis without increasing the number of cells. The cells were doing more of a particular job. I much prefer that concrete observation to a grand claim about rejuvenation. It is a specific finding, with a specific setting.

The story gets more interesting when building meets remodeling. The tissue-remodeling review describes GHK-Cu effects on collagen and elastin synthesis alongside metalloproteinases and anti-proteases. The material around cells is called the extracellular matrix. To my taste, its upkeep is at least as interesting as its production.

Research essays

There are several ways to enter this small collection. The pieces follow different problems, so the sequence can follow whichever question brought the reader here.

• Collagen and copper starts at the cell-culture bench, then examines a comparison reported in the skin review.
• Getting through skin stays with the barrier, the preparation and the substance a penetration study measured.
• A combination hair trial follows a controlled human experiment whose lower tested concentration had the larger hair-count increase.
• GHK in gene data examines the scale of a reported expression change and the threshold attached to it.

Collagen is my preferred starting place: the experiment gives the rest of the discussion something tangible to stand on. The reading list is available for a more direct route into the papers.

Hair-growth results

The controlled hair-growth trial studied a complex of 5-aminolevulinic acid and GHK. It reported higher hair-count increases than placebo in men with androgenetic alopecia. That tested combination deserves to stay in the sentence when the result is discussed.

A detail here intrigues me: the lower tested concentration had the larger reported increase. I regard the ordering as a reason to repeat the experiment. The hair-trial essay lays out the figures.

For me, the attraction of this literature lies in its unevenness: a clear cellular observation, an awkward delivery problem, a combination result, and gene data that open further questions. There is plenty here to be curious about without treating the future as already settled.