Same INCI, Different Supply Story: Understanding Recombinant PDRN

PDRN is gaining increasing attention in skincare, but the INCI name alone does not reveal how an ingredient is sourced or produced.

Within Uniproma’s PDRN portfolio, both salmon-derived and recombinant PDRN are identified as Sodium DNA. Despite sharing the same INCI designation, the two approaches differ significantly in production route, quality control and supply scalability.

Salmon-derived PDRN provides an important scientific starting point due to its established history across regenerative medicine, aesthetic applications and skincare. Building on this reference, Uniproma conducted extensive sequencing and comparison of commercial PDRN and PN products, selecting 99 optimal gene fragments for further recombinant development.

Unlike conventional extraction from biological tissues, recombinant PDRN follows a controlled manufacturing pathway:

Target sequence selection → plasmid construction → microbial fermentation → target-product capture → downstream purification

Following fermentation, downstream purification processes are designed to remove fermentation metabolites, host-cell proteins and host-cell DNA, with ion-exchange chromatography providing an additional purification step. This controlled process supports purity, batch consistency and technical traceability.

Fermentation-based manufacturing also reduces dependence on seasonal biological resources and provides a scalable route from development quantities to commercial production.

Efficacy has also been evaluated in vivo. After 28 days of application at 0.1%, recombinant PDRN demonstrated:

·TEWL reduction of 17.37%

·Erythema reduction of 12.40%

·Skin elasticity improvement of 30.11%

·Wrinkle count reduction of 46.67%

These findings support its potential in barrier repair, soothing, firming and anti-wrinkle formulations.

For formulators and brands, evaluating PDRN therefore means looking beyond the INCI name to understand the production system, quality controls and supply model behind the ingredient.

Uniproma provides technical documentation, formulation guidance, quality information and commercial supply support for recombinant PDRN development.