ResearchFrom the Lab

Topical PDRN and spicules: what the evidence actually shows

PDRN, the salmon-DNA ingredient behind injectable skin boosters, is now sold in creams and serums, often next to microneedle spicules. Its injected record is long. Its topical record rests on one small randomized trial. Here is what that trial found, why some bottles carry only a token dose, and what spicules can and can't add.

PubMed searched Sep 25, 2026

Polydeoxyribonucleotide, or PDRN, is a mix of DNA fragments, usually purified from salmon or trout sperm. Most of what is known about it comes from injections: wound healing, and more recently aesthetic "skin boosters." The authors of the first randomized topical trial say so directly: most studies and clinical applications of PDRN have focused on injectable use. A 2024 systematic review of polynucleotides in aesthetic medicine found nine studies of injections, 219 patients in all, of low to moderate quality.

The topical literature is thin. PubMed lists 80 papers that mention PDRN and skin in the title or abstract. Adding topical use, creams, serums or cosmetics narrows that to 18, and most of those are cell, animal, formulation or review papers. This post covers the human evidence that exists, the dose problem in products that print their dose, and what spicules add. It is personal research, not medical advice.

The short version

  • One randomized trial tests a topical product whose active is isolated PDRN. 31 women with sensitive skin used a 0.1% PDRN eye cream on one side of the face and 0.1% retinol on the other for 28 days. The PDRN side improved about twice as much. The trial is short, several authors are from a skincare company, and they say early gains may partly be hydration or plumping.
  • Consumer doses are mostly undisclosed, and one that is printed is tiny. VT's PDRN Reedle Shot 100 lists sodium DNA at 0.05 ppm: roughly 2.5 micrograms in a 50 mL bottle, 20,000 times below the trial's dose.
  • Plant "PhytoPDRN" rests on lab work by the company selling it. The most-cited paper never compares its efficacy with salmon PDRN; it calls that comparison future work.
  • Spicules are a real delivery tool. They open channels about 49 µm deep and have carried large molecules into skin, usually with a liposome carrier. No study has tested them with PDRN.
  • Retinoids still have the deeper evidence. PDRN's case is tolerability on sensitive, thin skin, and it rests on one 28-day trial.

The one real trial

Ye and colleagues published it in PLoS One in July 2026. The same paper includes cell, lab-skin and penetration work; the clinical part is what matters for a cream on a face.

Participants31 women in China, aged 35 to 55 (mean 47.5), with self-reported sensitive skin and visible periocular wrinkles
DesignRandomized, double-blind, split-face; both creams used an identical base
Treatment0.1% PDRN on one side, 0.1% retinol on the other, twice daily for 28 days, with daily sunscreen
The PDRNFrom salmon sperm, at least 96% pure, about 1,200 base pairs, average molecular weight up to 850 kDa; the only active in the cream
ResultsAbout twice retinol's gains in dermal thickness, dermal density and eye-bag measures. Crow's-feet wrinkle area and count fell about 20 to 23%, against 6 to 7% with retinol. Elasticity and firmness improved about 1.8 times as much. No adverse reactions on either side.
Getting inFluorescent-labeled PDRN reached the dermis of pig skin within 8 to 12 hours. In one volunteer's forearm, the signal reached past 20 µm, at 3.06% relative signal after 24 hours.
Caveats28 days is short for dermal remodeling, and the authors say early ultrasound gains may partly reflect hydration or plumping. Their Raman imaging can't separate applied PDRN from the skin's own DNA. Several authors are from UNISKIN's research institute at Inertia Shanghai Biotechnology, a skincare company.

That is a genuinely interesting result, and it is one trial. It compares PDRN with retinol at the same low concentration in people chosen for sensitive skin, a setting that favors the gentler ingredient.

Other human data on topical PDRN are thinner still. A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial tested a microalgae extract that contains PDRN alongside other actives. A 10-person test looked at a peony-derived PDRN. A case series of eight patients used a plant-PDRN serum after procedures. The first two were run by the companies that make those ingredients.

What is actually in the bottle

Many PDRN products don't state a concentration, which leaves the position on the ingredient list as the only clue. One that does state it is VT's PDRN Reedle Shot 100, which pairs PDRN with spicules. Its own ingredient list reads Sodium DNA(0.05ppm), near the end of more than 40 ingredients.

PDRN concentration

ppm, log scale: each gridline is ten times the one before

0.05 ppm is 0.000005%, roughly 2.5 micrograms of DNA in the whole 50 mL bottle. The trial used 20,000 times more.

Adenosine sits far higher on the same list. It is an established anti-wrinkle ingredient, and it acts on the same A2A receptor that PDRN is said to work through. Whatever receptor signaling that bottle produces is more likely adenosine's doing than the DNA's.

Plant PDRN: vendor lab work so far

"PhytoPDRN" claims trace back to a 2023 paper in Molecules on PDRN from cultured ginseng roots. Seven of its eight authors work for Biosolution, which developed the ingredient and also makes the lab skin models used to test it. The work stays in cells and those models:

  • Cell growth rose about 20%. Adding a blocker of the A2A receptor, the pathway PDRN is supposed to act through, lowered growth by only 7.5% compared with PDRN alone.
  • The skin-model results came from tissue cut with two surgical blades 1 mm apart, or stripped with 2% detergent, before treatment. Nothing tests whether it gets through intact skin.
  • The only comparison with salmon PDRN is fragment size on a gel. The paper's conclusion says the team aims to establish PhytoPDRN as a replacement "through comparison and equivalence experiments," which is to say that work hasn't been done.

The other plant and microbial PDRN papers in the search follow the same pattern: company-authored, mostly cell studies.

Spicules: what they add, and what they don't

The spicules in these products are silica needles from Haliclona sponges, about 120 µm long and 7 µm wide, rubbed into the skin. They are a real delivery tool, not a gimmick:

  • They open about 850 channels per square millimeter, about 49 µm deep, which close over about five days. The spicules themselves stay in the skin for at least 72 hours.
  • They raised skin uptake of a 10 kDa dextran 33 times, and its delivery into and across the dermis 62 times, in pig skin. In mice they beat a Dermaroller by 15 times.
  • With flexible liposomes, they carried 19 times as much 250 kDa hyaluronic acid into skin as plain buffer did, most of it into deep layers.
  • They raised uptake of stem-cell exosomes, which are nanoscale vesicles, 5.9 times, and with cationic liposomes, uptake of siRNA 73 times.
  • With lidocaine, total skin absorption rose about tenfold, and a pilot clinical trial halved the time to numbness.

So spicules can move large molecules. The limits are in the same papers. The gain falls as molecules get larger, and several of the large payloads were paired with a liposome carrier, which consumer products don't disclose. Nearly all of this work also comes from one lab group, at Xiamen University.

How deep, measured

µm below the skin surface; gridlines every 20 µm

Measurements from different studies and skin models, shown on one scale for size. None of them measured where PDRN from a spicule product ends up, because no such study exists.

A different kind of "micro-spicule" has one clinical result. In a 2017 randomized split-face trial of 20 people, dissolving hyaluronic-acid micro-spicules carrying EGF raised dermal density 30.1% and dermal depth 19.5% from baseline at eight weeks, significantly more than EGF alone. Six people had brief redness and prickling. Two of the authors are from a biotech company, Paean Biotechnology, and these dissolving micro-spicules are a different technology from sponge spicules.

A PubMed search for spicules together with PDRN returns nothing. Spicules could plausibly help PDRN into skin, but no one has measured it. And they can't fix a product that contains almost none: faster delivery of 0.05 ppm is still 0.05 ppm.

Where retinoids fit

Retinoids have decades of photoaging trials behind them, many running 24 weeks or longer. The PDRN trial's own authors call retinoids a cornerstone of photoaging treatment whose use is often limited by irritation, particularly around the eyes. That is the honest case for PDRN: a gentler option for sensitive, thin skin, supported by one 28-day trial. If irritation isn't the constraint, the retinoid remains the better-evidenced choice.

How this was checked

Every study below was read in PubMed on September 25, 2026, with full texts read for the PDRN trial, the ginseng PDRN paper and the micro-spicule trial. The search counts come from the three PubMed queries linked below. The VT figure is from the ingredient list on VT's own product page. Unit conversions assume 1 mL weighs about 1 g. This is personal research, not medical advice.

Sources

Studies

Product label

PubMed searches (September 25, 2026)

Related: my skincare protocol