I’ve always insisted that if you want effective skin care with innovative ingredients at reasonable prices, then the world of Korean-founded beauty is where you should explore. I felt validated in my belief when, last year, I reported on a unique serum that was rapidly growing in virality due to the inclusion of one anti-aging ingredient: polydeoxyribonucleotide, or PDRN for short.
PDRN, we learned from board-certified dermatopathologist and skin care brand founder, Dr. Gretchen Frieling, is a portion of DNA that’s typically derived from salmon sperm (you may have heard a similarly-named facial invoked by members of the Kardashian family and their ilk) and is widely used in regenerative and functional medicine, especially in Korea. (She said that vegan alternatives – derived from plants like wild ginseng — have similar benefits despite not being molecularly identical, and all PDRN currently approved for clinical or in-office use is the kind that’s extracted from salmon sperm or a similar fish like trout.)
“PDRN has been shown to accelerate repair of damaged skin and promote new tissue growth,” Frieling said. “It also boosts hydration in the skin, promotes cellular turnover and reduces hyperpigmentation.”
