Pal-AHK

Pal-AHK is the palmitoylated form of the tripeptide Ala-His-Lys. Direct peer-reviewed literature on the palmitoylated version is very sparse, so most biological rationale comes from broader cosmetic-peptide design principles and from work on the parent AHK or AHK-Cu systems.

Parent AHK literature supports a hair-follicle angle: AHK-Cu stimulated ex vivo human hair-follicle elongation and dermal-papilla-cell proliferation, with reduced apoptotic signaling in vitro. A recent cosmetic-peptide review also noted that AHK without copper increased viability of human follicle dermal papilla cells in vitro. Palmitoylation in cosmetic peptides is typically used to increase lipophilicity and interaction with the stratum corneum, so Pal-AHK is best understood as a formulation-optimized, experimentally inferred hair/skin signal peptide rather than a clinically established drug.