PDRN

PDRN (polydeoxyribonucleotide) is a blend of purified DNA fragments of low molecular weight — by convention 50-1,500 kDa — obtained from the gonadal tissue of salmon or trout and treated to strip out protein and antigenic components. Just like hyaluronic acid, it is not a peptide; it is carried as a comparator and co-formulant for skin and repair research.

Mechanisms under discussion

Two explanations are generally put forward. The first is activation of the adenosine A2A receptor, which cell and rodent studies have linked to altered VEGF expression and inflammatory signalling. The second is the salvage pathway: as the DNA is broken down enzymatically, it provides nucleosides and nucleotides that cells can recycle for DNA synthesis instead of building them from scratch. Both remain mechanistic hypotheses, backed chiefly by in vitro and rodent data plus a collection of small clinical trials, many of them from Italy and South Korea, where products containing PDRN are registered.

Specification is more important here than with a synthetic peptide: source species, fragment size distribution, and residual protein and endotoxin are the quality attributes that count, and identity cannot be verified by mass spectrometry the way it can for a defined sequence. Request fragment-size data and endotoxin results on the COA.

Related terms and material

tissue repair · angiogenesis. Reference material: PDRN (2 mL and 5 mL, 2%), cosmetic peptides. Further reading: PDRN: hype and data.