EGF, PDRN, noggin: what the protein on an activator label means
Professional lines increasingly carry a second name on the vial — a protein. We look at what sits behind it and what to ask before putting such a product into a treatment room.
On the professional shelf you increasingly meet vials carrying two names at once: exosomes of a stated origin, and separately a protein — EGF, PDRN, noggin. It helps a buyer to understand that these are not the same thing and that each name answers for its own part. We use the EXONOVA line from the Korean company RNH BIO, where each of the four activators carries such a label.
Two layers in one vial
The exosomes in these products are the carrier and the base. The protein in the name is what the company singles out as the key component of that particular activator. In the EXONOVA line it looks like this: PDRN Repair is built on five-seaweed exosomes with PDRN, White Glow on rice and milk exosomes with arbutin, EGF Firming on camellia and coffee exosomes with EGF, Noggin Scalp on Japanese hop, coffee, peppermint and camellia exosomes with noggin.
Such a label suits a treatment room: the practitioner picks a vial by task without reading the full formulation. It suits a buyer less well: the name of a protein says nothing about its quantity, its origin, or what confirms its activity.
How the proteins themselves differ
EGF and FGF are growth factors; noggin belongs to the proteins that regulate signalling pathways. PDRN is not a protein at all but fragments of DNA, most often of salmon origin. Arbutin is a small molecule rather than a protein. In other words, substances of completely different natures can sit under one heading on a label.
For purchasing that means the questions differ too. For growth factors you ask about origin and stability. For PDRN, about the source material and the degree of purification. For small molecules, about concentration and compatibility with the base.
What to ask the manufacturer
The protein concentration in the finished product, not in the raw material. The origin: recombinant, animal, plant. Stability in the formulation and after activation. The data that confirms activity, and the model it was obtained on. Compatibility with the procedures after which the product is applied. And the list of claims permitted for your market.
The last point matters especially for growth factors. In a number of countries claims about them in cosmetics are restricted more tightly than in Korea, and the same vial will be labelled differently in two countries. Do not ask «what does it do», ask «what are you prepared to support with documents for my market».