Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1

Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 (Pal-GHK) is a synthetic lipopeptide consisting of the tripeptide Gly-His-Lys (GHK) conjugated at its N-terminus to palmitic acid, a 16-carbon saturated fatty acid. It was developed by the French cosmetic-ingredient company Sederma as part of their Matrikine technology platform in the late 1990s and is commercially marketed under the trade name Biopeptide CL.

At Verified Peptides, we want to directly address a genuine naming-confusion risk relevant to this exact catalog: Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 shares its core tripeptide sequence (GHK) with GHK-Cu, also built on this site, but GHK-Cu is the copper(II)-chelated form of the same tripeptide, while Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 instead attaches a fatty-acid tail (no copper) specifically to improve skin penetration by increasing lipophilicity. These are genuinely distinct molecules with different chemistry and, to some extent, different proposed mechanisms, despite sharing the same core three-amino-acid sequence. Separately, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 should also not be confused with Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 (Pal-KTTKS, marketed as Matrixyl), a different, five-residue palmitoylated peptide also built on this site — a distinction we verified carefully before writing this profile, since several secondary sources online conflate research on these two different Sederma-developed compounds.

Chemically, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 has molecular formula C30H54N6O5, molecular weight approximately 578.8 g/mol (calculated from the formula), CAS number 147732-56-7, PubChem CID 10231864.

The synthesis of Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 involves solid-phase peptide synthesis of the Gly-His-Lys backbone followed by acylation of the N-terminal glycine's free amine with palmitic acid (hexadecanoic acid) to form an amide bond between the fatty acid's carboxyl group and the peptide's terminal amine. This is the same general fatty-acid-conjugation chemistry used to produce other lipopeptides in cosmetic science, including Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4, though applied here to a different, shorter three-residue backbone. At Verified Peptides, we think this shared conjugation chemistry, applied across otherwise-distinct peptide sequences, is itself part of why these related Sederma-family compounds are so frequently confused in secondary literature and vendor marketing material.

At Verified Peptides, we think Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1's evidence base, while genuine, is comparatively limited and has historically been discussed alongside — and sometimes conflated with — research on related but distinct GHK-family compounds. The primary study we can confidently attribute specifically to Pal-GHK (Lintner and Peschard, 2000, PMID 18503476) demonstrated increased collagen synthesis in both cultured fibroblasts and ex vivo skin tissue, a legitimate in vitro and tissue-level finding, though not itself a controlled human clinical trial measuring visible cosmetic outcomes such as wrinkle depth.

We want to be direct about a specific citation risk we identified and avoided during this build: some secondary and vendor sources describe a well-known clinical trial (Robinson et al., 2005, International Journal of Cosmetic Science, a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, split-face trial in 93 women) as evidence for "Matrixyl," which can create ambiguity, since that specific trial tested Pal-KTTKS (Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4), a different five-residue peptide, not Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 (Pal-GHK) itself. We are not attributing that trial's results to Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 in this profile, since doing so would misattribute a different compound's clinical evidence to this one.

Separately, we want to note that the well-established original collagen-stimulation research on the underlying GHK tripeptide itself (including a landmark 1988 study on the copper-chelated form, glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine-Cu2+, published in FEBS Letters) is specific to GHK-Cu, not Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1's fatty-acid-conjugated form — again, a related but distinct compound whose research should not be assumed directly transferable to this profile's specific compound. No FDA, EMA, or other Western regulatory body evaluates Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 as a drug, since it is regulated as a cosmetic ingredient. At Verified Peptides, we sell research-grade Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 exclusively for laboratory research, and we encourage researchers to keep these three related-but-distinct GHK-family compounds (Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, GHK-Cu, and Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4) and their individually distinct evidence bases clearly separated.

It is also worth noting that Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 is frequently sold, both in cosmetic formulations and in some research-compound channels, as part of a pre-mixed blend alongside Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 (commercial blends of this kind are sometimes marketed under names combining or referencing both "Matrixyl" and "Biopeptide" branding). At Verified Peptides, we sell Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 as a standalone single compound, not as part of any proprietary blend, specifically so that researchers can control for one variable at a time — a distinction we think matters given how often these two compounds appear pre-combined in commercial cosmetic contexts.

The GHK tripeptide's proposed "matrikine" signaling role — acting as a fragment-derived alarm signal for tissue repair — is part of a broader, independently studied area of extracellular matrix biology, in which specific peptide fragments released during collagen and elastin breakdown are proposed to have signaling functions distinct from their parent protein's structural role. This concept extends well beyond any single commercial cosmetic ingredient and is studied across wound-healing and tissue-remodeling research generally.

Sederma's Matrikine technology platform, which produced Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 alongside related compounds, reflects a broader cosmetic-industry strategy of identifying naturally occurring bioactive peptide fragments and then chemically modifying them (via fatty-acid conjugation, in this case) to improve their practical performance as topical cosmetic ingredients — the same general strategy, applied to a different starting peptide, used to develop Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 (Matrixyl) from the Pal-KTTKS sequence.

Because Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1, GHK-Cu, and Palmitoyl Pentapeptide-4 are all separately marketed, GHK-related or fatty-acid-conjugated cosmetic peptides developed around a similar general "matrikine" concept, but by different research groups or product lines and with distinct specific sequences, researchers evaluating secondary or vendor literature on any one of these three compounds should verify which specific compound a given cited study actually tested, since we found genuine evidence during this research process that citations for these related compounds are sometimes conflated across vendor and informational websites.

At Verified Peptides, we require independent third-party HPLC purity testing and mass spectrometry identity confirmation for every batch of research-grade Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 we offer, with a Certificate of Analysis (COA) available for each lot. As a fatty-acid-conjugated peptide, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 requires specific synthesis chemistry to correctly form the palmitic acid-peptide amide bond, and identity confirmation should verify this specific conjugation, not just the underlying tripeptide sequence alone.

We source exclusively from manufacturers operating under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-aligned quality systems, and every lot is independently verified rather than accepted solely on a supplier's internal documentation. Researchers should always request and review the specific COA for the lot they receive, confirming purity percentage and molecular identity before use in any experimental protocol.

Lyophilized Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1 is stable when stored at -20°C, protected from light and moisture. At Verified Peptides, we ship lyophilized peptide with appropriate cold-chain packaging to preserve stability in transit.

As a lipopeptide with a fatty-acid conjugation, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-1's solubility and handling characteristics may differ somewhat from unmodified peptides — the fatty-acid tail increases lipophilicity, which is relevant to both its proposed skin-penetration advantage and to appropriate solvent selection for reconstitution. Researchers should follow the specific storage and reconstitution guidance provided with each lot's documentation rather than assuming identical handling to non-lipidated peptides in this catalog.

Once reconstituted, solution should be stored refrigerated at 2–8°C and used within the timeframe indicated on the product's documentation, avoiding repeated freeze-thaw cycles.