Cosmetic products containing gold never fail to attract consumers’ interest. Packaged into luxuriant containers and priced accordingly, such products promise miraculous rejuvenation and beautification of the skin. They sell well. Yet, scientists have been long puzzled by the biological effects of gold on skin. On one hand, gold has no known biological function and often causes allergic reactions in a number of susceptible individuals, but on the other hand, gold salts have proved to be effective in alleviating many inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis. How they work, however, remained a mystery until the very recently.
In 2005 Stoyanov and Brown discovered that gold can activate a protein that mobilizes copper from its intracellular reserves. It turned out that the glamorous metal gold, was more likely just helping the cells of the body receive the necessary amount of its less alluring cousin: copper. If this is true, then it is quite possible that cosmetics containing gold may indeed provide other benefits beyond treatment of inflammation and aid in wound healing, wrinkles reduction and skin tightening all because of its ability to increase copper. But the high possibility of allergic skin reaction on gold remains a problem, especially since all those effects and more can be obtained safely (and with a better result) through the cosmetics containing tripeptide GHK-Cu – a natural regulator of copper in the skin and a well-known activator of skin healing and remodeling.
Copper complexes have been long used in therapy of inflammatory conditions such as arthritis with a great success. Recently, Professor Maibach at UCSF School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco demonstrated that copper in a form of GHK-Cu (glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine cuprate diacetate) can be used topically as an effective anti-inflammatory agent. In 48 hours, approximately 0.14 mg/copper per 1 cm2 permeated skin from 0.68% GHK-Cu solution, while 0.29 mg was retained in the stratum corneum. According to Maibach, this deposited copper will eventually become available too, contributing to a prolonged and gentle effect of the treatment.
Addressing the issue of copper toxicity, professor Maibach explained that any toxicity can be attributed only to an inorganic form of copper (copper I) while in the skin copper is bound to many proteins and peptides (copper peptides) that tightly control this metal. This form of copper (we, in Skin Biology, call it bio-copper) is absolutely safe and can be used to restore skin’s health.
Indeed, it has been shown that the skin desperately needs copper and that accelerating aging as well as many diseases are associated with its deficiency. The most important enzyme in the collagen synthesis is a copper dependent enzyme lysyl oxidase. Less copper means less collagen. Therefore, if you love you skin and hate wrinkles – you better make sure that your skin is getting enough copper.
Professor Maibach’s research demonstrated once more that GHK-Cu is an effective agent capable of restoring copper level in the skin. In addition, many benefits of copper in a form of the GHK-Cu tri-peptide make it a far more superior way of relieving inflammatory conditions, stimulating collagen and skin renewal, erasing wrinkles and plumping up the skin compared to gold salts. Even though, gold is so dear to people’s heart, we advise to eliminate a middle-man and treat your skin with a truly precious (at least from a biological point of view) metal, copper.
Stoyanov J.V., Brown N.L.The Escherichia coli copper-responsive copA promoter is activated by gold. J. Biol. Chem. 2005;17;278(3):1407-10
Hostynek J.J., Dreher F., Maibach H.I. Human skin retention and penetration of a copper tripeptide in vitro as function of skin layer towards anti-inflammatory therapy. Inflamm Res. 2010;59(11):983-8.
Uauy R., Olivares M., Gonzalez M. Essentiality of copper in humans. Am J Clin Nutr. 1998;67(5 Suppl):952S-959S
Szauter K.M., Cao T., Boyd C.D., Csiszar K. Lysyl oxidase in development, aging and pathologies of the skin. Pathol Biol (Paris). 2005;53(7):448-56.
Copper-peptides increase cell survival
Stress is harmful not only to people, but also to the cells in our bodies. Skin cells are especially vulnerable. Helen Sage from University of Washington, in Seattle, discovered that a protein called SPARC can help cells survive stressful conditions. Further investigation revealed that this quality is due to the fact that this protein contains the copper binding KKGHK peptide (GHK analog), which is released in case of an injury. Recently the same research group demonstrated that GHK peptides released from SPARC help restore blood supply to wounded areas. Researchers say that SPARC accumulates at the site of an injury, releasing copper peptides, which activate pro-survival and healing.
Weaver M.S., Workman G., Sage E. H. The Copper Binding Domain of SPARC Mediates Cell Survival in Vitro via Interaction with Integrin β1 and Activation of Integrin-linked Kinase*J Biol Chem. 2008 August 15; 283(33): 22826–22837.
