Topical vs Injectable
A PDRN serum and a PDRN injection are not the same thing, and not by a little. Twelve dimensions, taken apart one at a time.
Is the serum I use the same thing as the injection I get in a clinic?
PDRN’s molecular weight is 100 to 3000 times the 500 Da skin-penetration ceiling, so applying and injecting are two different paths — a difference in kind, not in degree.
A human in vivo measurement now exists, but it is small: 3.06% relative permeation at 24 h (n=1), with signal reaching beyond 20 µm into the superficial viable epidermis. It is a signal, not a mass balance.
The Raman method cannot distinguish exogenous PDRN from endogenous nucleic acids, and the n=31 human RCT used a medium-length preparation (≤850 kDa, 0.1%) in a specific water-in-silicone vehicle. Those results cannot be generalised to every product.
01 · The physical gap
A ruler with four honest marks.
Ruler anchors: 500 Dalton skin-penetration threshold; 80 to 200 kilodalton primary active band; 50 to 1500 kilodalton commercial range with a peak near 350 kilodaltons; low-molecular-weight fragments are not quantified in the collected data.
Logarithmic scale. The 500 Da rule is a conceptual anchor, not a verdict on PDRN; the low-molecular-weight fragment row has no numeric value in the collected data.
02 · Twelve dimensions
Take it apart one dimension at a time.
Dimension rail
Topical
Route of administration
Topical application (serum, cream, ampoule, mask and other cosmetic forms). The site database holds 644 products from 314 brands across 14 categories: 172 serums, 144 creams, 92 ampoules, 73 toners/waters, 42 lotions, 62 masks.
Injectable
Route of administration
Intracutaneous injection into the dermis (medical device or pharmaceutical form), performed by licensed practitioners in a clinical setting.
Why they differ
The route itself determines three separate downstream lines: delivery, regulatory status and evidence strength.
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