Effect of GLY-HIS-LYS and its copper complex on TGF-β secretion in normal human dermal fibroblasts

Gruchlik A, Chodurek E, Dzierzewicz Z · Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica

IGF-2 raised TGF-β1 secretion almost twofold; GHK, GHK-Cu and free copper ions each lowered that IGF-2-dependent secretion, with copper as the chloride and copper in the complex inhibiting more strongly than the peptide alone and the two copper forms acting alike. The direction is downward, against the common summary that GHK-Cu drives TGF-β signalling. Without IGF-2 the effect largely goes: GHK alone was a trend (p=0.31) and GHK-Cu and CuCl2 did nothing. TNF-α at the same 100 ng/mL was the study's other candidate inducer and did not raise TGF-β1.

Population

Normal human dermal fibroblasts

Intervention

1 nM GHK, GHK-Cu or CuCl2 with 100 ng/mL IGF-2

Comparator

IGF-2 alone

Limitations

One peptide concentration, four wells per condition, ELISA on conditioned medium, no fibrosis or matrix endpoint. Only total TGF-β1 was measurable: the active form stayed below the detection threshold, so what moved is the latent pool. Free CuCl2 did not merely reproduce the effect but exceeded the peptide's, so this result does not show the peptide is what matters. Funded by the Medical University of Silesia.