PDRN is usually introduced as “salmon DNA”, which makes it sound like something you simply take out of a fish.
Turning it into a Sodium DNA / PDRN raw material a formulator can actually work with takes considerably more than one extraction step.
Put the published research and the patent literature side by side, and traditional salmon-derived PDRN production comes back to the same stages:
Raw-material pre-treatment → DNA release and separation → DNA extraction → purification → molecular-weight control → concentration / drying → final quality testing
How each of those is done is a design decision every manufacturer makes against its own target specification and technical route.
For brands, OEM/ODM houses, formulators and ingredient buyers, the useful questions are not “how many extractions” or “how many purifications”, but:
- How is the DNA extracted?
- What purification and separation technology is used?
- What molecular-weight range comes out at the end?
- What is the DNA assay?
- How well are residual protein, endotoxin and other impurities controlled?
- Does the material stay consistent across commercial batches?
This article works through that from the raw-material and manufacturing side: how salmon DNA becomes a commercial PDRN ingredient.
Where PDRN is extracted from
Salmonid fish are the classic source, and salmon is still the most established route, but it is no longer the only one.
If the ingredient itself is new to you, start with the basics: What is PDRN? A Complete Guide to Salmon DNA in Skincare.
Classic PDRN research mostly used DNA-rich tissue from salmonids such as salmon and trout as the nucleic-acid source, then extracted, purified and further processed it into a mixture of DNA fragments.
For the origin and basic definition of classic PDRN, see the 2017 review in Frontiers in Pharmacology: Pharmacological Activity and Clinical Use of PDRN.
The field has widened since. Research and the market now include:
- Salmon-derived PDRN
- Plant-derived PDRN
- Microalgae-derived PDRN
- Fermentation-derived PDRN
- Recombinant / synthetic DNA approaches
A 2024 review dedicated to PDRN extraction and cosmetic application summarises these different sources and extraction routes: Recent advances on polydeoxyribonucleotide extraction and its novel application in cosmeceuticals.
Which means the four letters “PDRN” do not, on their own, tell you what a commercial raw material is.
To go further into what changes between sources, read Different Sources of PDRN: Salmon, Vegan, Fermentation & More.
This article stays with the more established route: salmon-derived PDRN extraction and purification.
What the extraction process actually looks like
No two manufacturers run the same SOP, but strip the published research and patents down to their common shape and traditional salmon-derived PDRN production becomes readable.
Salmon-Derived Raw Material → Pre-treatment → DNA Release & Separation → DNA Extraction → Purification → Molecular Weight Control → Concentration / Drying → Quality Control → Sodium DNA / PDRN Raw Material
The point of this chain is not that every manufacturer produces PDRN by an identical method.
The understanding worth building is this:
PDRN extraction is a complete sequence of DNA separation, purification, fractionation and quality control, not a single extraction action.
Step one: pre-treatment and DNA release
DNA starts out inside a complex biological tissue environment, so before any extraction happens the target DNA has to be released from that original tissue structure.
Depending on the production route, this stage can involve:
- Cleaning and pre-treatment of the raw material
- Tissue disruption
- Cell lysis
- Initial separation of proteins and other tissue components
- Centrifugation
- Solid-liquid separation
The published Korean patent KR20190139633A, for example, describes a route for obtaining PDRN-related DNA from fish semen or testis tissue.
It runs through freezing, tissue processing, lysis, centrifugation, DNA precipitation, washing and drying.
What the case shows is the distance in the middle: between “salmon tissue” and a finished “PDRN raw material” sit several production stages of genuinely different character.
So two products can both be called Salmon PDRN and still not be comparable on source alone.
Raw-material control, DNA extraction conditions, downstream purification, molecular-weight control, final QC — change any one of them and the commercial specification can change with it.
Step two: how the DNA is separated out
Once the DNA is released from the tissue it still has to be separated from the proteins, polysaccharides, lipids, salts and other tissue components around it.
Public DNA and PDRN preparation literature shows a wide range of operations, for example:
- Salting out
- DNA precipitation
- Centrifugation
- Washing
- Alcohol precipitation
- Enzymatic treatment
- Membrane separation
- Other nucleic-acid separation techniques
Different companies combine these differently inside their own production systems. So strictly speaking:
PDRN extraction is not one fixed method. It is a process route built around separating, extracting and further handling the target DNA.
Which brings up something that gets overlooked:
two PDRN suppliers may already differ at the DNA extraction step, before purification has even started.
How inorganic salt extraction differs from an enzymatic route
Take the Sodium DNA / PDRN we currently supply as the example. According to the current product technical documentation, the route is:
Inorganic Salt-Based DNA Extraction
The route uses an inorganic salt system to separate the target DNA, and that documentation states one characteristic of it explicitly:
No enzymatic digestion required.
In other words, the DNA extraction step does not depend on enzymatic digestion to separate the target DNA.
That differs from some of the enzymatic processing routes visible in this market. One Chinese Sodium DNA supplier, for instance, describes its salmon-derived PDRN on its published product page as:
“Made from salmon reproductive cells through targeted enzymatic hydrolysis and multi-stage purification processes.”
Other published PDRN process material and patents show protease, DNase or other enzymes taking part at different production stages.
Enzymatic processing is one of the more commonly visible technical routes in PDRN preparation, then, but it is not the only method.
A more accurate way to read the two:
| Inorganic salt DNA extraction | Enzymatic route | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic principle | An inorganic salt system separates and extracts the target DNA | Specific enzymes take part in raw-material processing, DNA dissociation or DNA fragment control |
| At the DNA extraction step | No enzymatic digestion required | Some routes use enzymatic digestion or hydrolysis |
| Key process variables | Salt system, concentration, separation conditions, downstream purification | Enzyme type, enzyme activity, reaction time, temperature, pH |
| Purification still needed afterwards | Yes | Yes |
| What the final judgement rests on | Assay, MW, impurities, batch consistency | Also assay, MW, impurities, batch consistency |
One conclusion cannot be drawn from this, though:
“An inorganic salt route is necessarily better than an enzymatic one.”
The reason is straightforward.
An enzyme is a production tool.
In some PDRN preparation routes, enzymatic treatment is used deliberately, for DNA fragmentation or molecular-weight control, to arrive at a target fragment range.
So the comparison worth making is not:
Salt method vs enzymatic method — which one is more advanced?
It is:
Can the production route reliably deliver DNA that meets the target specification?
Which brings it back to:
Which is also why “we use advanced extraction technology” from a supplier is nowhere near enough at the buying stage. The questions worth pressing on are:
What extraction method is used?
And:
What happens after the DNA is extracted?
Because getting the DNA out is only the first step towards a high-specification PDRN raw material.
Why the DNA still needs purifying after extraction
Getting DNA out of the tissue does not mean you have a finished high-specification PDRN, and this is a critical part of understanding PDRN production.
Depending on the raw material and the route, what comes out of extraction can still contain:
- Residual proteins
- Polysaccharides
- Lipids
- Salts
- Process-related impurities
- Non-target DNA fractions
The difference between the two steps fits in one line:
Extraction answers “how do we get the DNA out”. Purification answers “what do we keep”.
So discussing PDRN production quality on source alone is not enough, and on extraction method alone is not enough either.
Downstream purification and molecular-weight control decide just as much of what the final raw material is.
How PDRN is purified
There is no single industry-standard purification route for PDRN, and real production usually combines several separation methods.
Centrifugation, precipitation and washing
Centrifugation is a very common solid-liquid separation step in nucleic-acid processing.
Under the right conditions DNA can also be separated and concentrated by precipitation, parting it from some of the non-target material at the same time.
These operations are common throughout the public PDRN patent literature. Usually they are one part of the purification system rather than the whole of it.
So: how many times something was centrifuged, washed or precipitated does not by itself represent the final quality of the PDRN.
Why membrane separation is worth asking about
For a DNA material that carries a molecular-weight distribution, membrane separation has one property the other methods do not:
the separation range can be designed around the size of the target molecule.
Depending on the membrane specification and the production conditions, membrane technology can be used to:
- Concentrate DNA
- Remove some small-molecule impurities
- Separate non-target fractions
- Control the DNA molecular-weight band
- Fractionate different DNA populations by size
Korean patent KR20180060542A describes a representative membrane separation approach for PDRN.
A first stage uses a membrane able to separate one molecular-weight range, with the solution passed through it three to four times.
A second stage then switches to a membrane covering a different molecular-weight range, again passed through three to four times.
The objective is explicit: keep the PDRN in the target molecular-weight range, and take out the non-target DNA fragments and the impurities.
What matters here is not “how many passes in total”. It is:
Why that membrane in the first stage?
Why change the membrane specification in the second?
Which DNA molecular-weight range is meant to be left at the end?
Read a PDRN purification process that way and it starts making sense.
Does a higher purification count mean a better material?
It does not, and the clearest way to show why is a question a customer actually asked us.
The customer told us a competing supplier was promoting, in its PDRN production:
up to 15 purification steps
And asked:
How many purification steps does your PDRN need to reach around 99% DNA content?
From a procurement seat that is easy to understand. With the market constantly emphasising “multiple purifications”, a buyer naturally forms the impression:
more purification steps = purer PDRN.
Actual process engineering does not work that way, because what one supplier calls “one purification” may be an entirely different concept from another’s. It could mean:
- One membrane filtration
- One wash
- One centrifugation
- One precipitation
- One diafiltration
- One molecular-weight fractionation
- One complete purification stage
The membrane separation patent above is a good example of exactly this. It already contains distinct membrane stages, and each stage can itself be passed through several times.
So comparing 5, 8 or 15 with no visibility into the actual process tells you nothing about which product is of higher quality.
A purification count describes part of the production process. It is not the final quality itself.
For brands, OEM/ODM houses and buyers, the better question is:
How is the PDRN purified, and what does the final specification show?
The specifications worth more than a purification count
Judging a commercial PDRN raw material cannot come down to one “high purity” figure. The more workable method is to read several quality parameters together.
| Parameter | What to look at | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Assay / DNA Content | DNA content and the test method behind it | Tells you how much target DNA the material contains |
| Molecular Weight | The molecular-weight range | Tells you which final DNA fragment population you are getting |
| Molecular Weight Test Method | Which method was used, and whether the report gives an average or a distribution | Data from different test methods and calibration ranges cannot simply be compared side by side |
| Hyperchromicity | Test method and result | Gives structure-related information about double-stranded DNA |
| Residual Protein | Specification and batch result | Reflects control of protein impurities from the biological source |
| Endotoxin | Test method, specification and result | A core PDRN quality-control parameter |
| Batch Consistency | COAs across several batches | Tells you whether commercial supply holds steady |
| Source Documentation | Origin documents | Supports origin and traceability review |
So comparing:
99% vs 99.8%
very often still does not tell you which PDRN suits your project better.
Why two 99% PDRN materials can still be different
Suppose two suppliers both tell you:
PDRN Assay ≥99%
All that establishes is that both products reach a high level on the single dimension of DNA content.
It has not answered:
- Are the two DNA molecular weights the same?
- Do the molecular-weight distributions match?
- Is residual protein the same?
- Is endotoxin control the same?
- Is the DNA in the same structural state?
- Do batches stay consistent?
And PDRN was never a single small molecule of uniform length in the first place.
On molecular weight we have written separately: Does PDRN Molecular Weight Matter?.
Published research generally describes PDRN as a mixture of DNA fragments across a molecular-weight range, rather than a single fixed molecular weight.
The 2024 review mentioned earlier describes classic PDRN as a mixture of DNA fragments of approximately 50–1500 kDa.
In one line:
Assay tells you how much DNA is in the batch. On its own it does not tell you what that DNA looks like.
It has to be read together with:
Molecular Weight + Distribution + Structure + Impurity Control
Where hyperchromicity fits
Beyond assay and molecular weight, the structural state of the DNA is also worth reading.
Hyperchromicity describes the change in UV absorbance that occurs as DNA denatures. For PDRN, it works as a window onto the structural characteristics of double-stranded DNA.
One thing to be clear about:
Hyperchromicity is not a substitute for purity, and it does not demonstrate product efficacy on its own.
It needs to be read alongside:
- Assay
- Molecular weight
- Residual protein
- Endotoxin
- The rest of the QC set
For more on this parameter, read on: PDRN Hyperchromicity: A Key Quality Indicator for Double-Stranded DNA.
How our Sodium DNA (PDRN) is extracted and purified
Taking the Sodium DNA (PDRN) we currently supply as the example: according to the current product technical documentation, the route is:
Inorganic Salt-Based DNA Extraction + Pressure-Driven Membrane Purification
As covered above, one characteristic of that DNA extraction route is:
No enzymatic digestion required during the DNA extraction step.
The quality-control logic is not a simple pursuit of “how many filtration passes”.
The separation, purification and fractionation sequence is designed around the target DNA fraction and the final commercial specification. Membrane purification is built around:
- Separating the target DNA fraction
- Controlling non-target fractions
- Controlling residual protein
- Controlling polysaccharides and comparable impurities
- Molecular-weight control
- Final batch consistency
Purification is carried out under controlled, comparatively mild conditions, to keep unnecessary thermal stress off the DNA.
Part of the specification currently published on the product page:
- Assay: 99.8%
- Hyperchromicity: 47.7%
- Endotoxin: ≤0.01 EU/mL
- Molecular Weight: <1000 kDa
- Protein Content: included in batch QC
- Batch-specific COA available
These figures belong together as a set.
Rather than compressing PDRN quality down to:
“Which extraction method was used?”
Or:
“How many purification steps?”
For the relationship between this process and the structural state of the DNA, read on: PDRN Hyperchromicity: A Key Quality Indicator for Double-Stranded DNA.
Eight questions to ask a PDRN supplier
If you are screening suppliers for a PDRN project, whether you are:
- A brand
- An OEM/ODM house
- A formulator
- An ingredient distributor
this is the minimum worth confirming, in this order.
1. What is the source of your PDRN?
Confirm the specific biological source rather than accepting a general label like:
Salmon DNA
2. How is the DNA extracted?
Establish which class of DNA extraction technology the supplier uses. For example:
- Inorganic salt-based extraction
- Enzymatic processing
- Precipitation-based separation
- Other combined techniques
3. How is the PDRN purified?
Confirm what comes afterwards:
- Membrane separation
- Precipitation
- Centrifugation
- Washing
- Diafiltration
- Molecular-weight fractionation
- Or another combination
4. If you claim multiple purification steps, what does each step mean?
Where a supplier leads with:
8 purification steps 15 purification steps
press one level further: what does each one actually consist of?
5. What is the molecular-weight range?
Do not stop at DNA content.
6. What is the assay, and how is it measured?
Establish the basis and the test method behind 99%, 99.5% or 99.8%.
7. Are residual protein and endotoxin controlled?
Confirm that these parameters are genuinely part of batch QC.
8. Can you provide batch-specific documents?
Check against what the project needs:
- COA
- Specification / TDS
- SDS / MSDS
- Source documentation
- Endotoxin report
- Relevant QC documents
What you end up finding is:
A specification and document set you can verify is usually worth more, in purchasing terms, than one attractive marketing number.
From raw material to finished formula
Choosing the right PDRN raw material is the first step of product development, not the last.
Once PDRN goes into a:
- Serum
- Ampoule
- Mask
- Toner
- Cream
- Other water-phase skincare system
the next set of variables opens up:
- Use level
- Dissolution method
- Addition temperature
- Shear
- pH
- Preservative system
- Electrolytes
- Cationic ingredients
- Metal ions
- Long-term stability
So even where a PDRN raw material carries a strong set of:
Assay + Molecular Weight + Hyperchromicity + QC
stability and compatibility still have to be verified in the real formula system.
If you are in active product development, carry on to: PDRN Serum, Cream, Mask, Toner and Ampoule Formulation Guide.
Try it in your own formula
Judging a PDRN raw material comes down, in the end, to testing it in your own system.
Tell us what you are building and we will send a free 2–3 g sample of the grade that fits, dispatched within three working days, with the current COA and TDS for your formulation trials and project review.
Frequently asked questions
How is PDRN extracted?
Traditional salmon-derived PDRN usually passes through:
Raw-material pre-treatment → DNA release → DNA separation and extraction → purification → molecular-weight control → final QC
Each manufacturer designs the specific production method around its own technical route and target specification. There is no single standard extraction procedure that every company follows identically.
How is PDRN extracted from salmon?
Published research and patents describe routes that begin with DNA-rich tissue from salmonid fish and obtain the target DNA through tissue processing, DNA release, centrifugation, precipitation, washing and downstream purification.
For the specific raw-material tissue and production method, go by the source documentation and technical files the supplier provides.
Does PDRN extraction always require enzymatic digestion?
Not necessarily.
Routes involving enzymatic hydrolysis or enzymatic digestion in PDRN preparation are certainly visible in the market. So are technologies that complete DNA extraction without relying on enzymatic digestion.
The inorganic-salt-based DNA extraction process we currently use, for example, has this as one characteristic of the DNA extraction step:
No enzymatic digestion required.
Product quality still has to be judged by combining downstream purification, molecular-weight control and QC data.
Is inorganic salt extraction better than an enzymatic route?
That conclusion cannot be drawn from the extraction method alone.
The two classes of technology work on different production principles and different process variables. An inorganic salt system can separate and extract the target DNA; enzymes, in some production routes, take part in protein processing, DNA dissociation or DNA fragmentation.
What actually needs comparing is the final product’s:
Assay + Molecular Weight + Residual Protein + Endotoxin + Batch Consistency
Not the name of the process.
Is PDRN always extracted from salmon sperm?
Not necessarily.
Classic PDRN and several published patents do use DNA-rich tissue such as the semen and testes of salmonids including salmon and trout as the raw material.
But the market and the research now also include:
- Plant sources
- Microalgae sources
- Microbial routes
- Fermentation routes
- Other newer DNA sources
So for a specific commercial product, check the source documentation the supplier provides.
Is more purification always better?
A count alone does not support that conclusion.
What different manufacturers call a single “purification” may separately mean:
- Membrane filtration
- Washing
- Centrifugation
- Precipitation
- Diafiltration
- Molecular-weight fractionation
- A complete purification stage
So “5, 8 or 15 purifications” from different companies cannot be compared directly without the underlying process.
Rather than the count, look at:
Purification Process + Assay + Molecular Weight + Residual Protein + Endotoxin + Batch Consistency
Is 99% PDRN high purity?
A relatively high DNA assay is one of the important parameters for evaluating a PDRN raw material.
It does not represent the whole of the quality.
Two PDRN materials both reaching around 99% assay can still differ in:
- Molecular weight
- DNA structure
- Residual protein
- Endotoxin
- Batch consistency
What matters most when buying PDRN?
Confirm at least:
- Source
- Extraction process
- Purification process
- Assay
- Molecular weight
- Hyperchromicity
- Residual protein
- Endotoxin
- COA / TDS / SDS
- Batch consistency
For B2B procurement:
Verifiable data and documents carry more decision value than a single marketing concept.
Conclusion: read the whole process, not a process name
Getting from salmon-derived raw material to a finished Sodium DNA / PDRN is not one simple extraction.
The full process is closer to:
Source → DNA Release → DNA Extraction → Purification → Molecular Weight Control → Quality Control
Different manufacturers can take different technical routes through it.
Some processes use enzymatic processing, others use different DNA separation methods, and either can be followed by membrane separation, precipitation, centrifugation and molecular-weight fractionation.
Which makes it very hard to judge whether one PDRN is better through:
“Is it an enzymatic route?”
“How many purification steps were used?”
For brands, OEM/ODM houses, formulators and ingredient buyers, the question worth carrying into a supplier conversation is always:
What is being extracted, how is it purified, and what does the final specification show?
Which brings it back to what can actually be verified:
Source, extraction process, purification technology, molecular weight, DNA content, impurity control and batch data.
Read together, those get you far closer to the real quality of a commercial PDRN raw material.
References
The sources below are used to explain the general technical principles this article covers: PDRN source, extraction, purification and molecular-weight control.
Production processes and specifications for individual commercial PDRN products may differ.
- Nguyen TH, et al. — Recent advances on polydeoxyribonucleotide extraction and its novel application in cosmeceuticals. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2024. View source Used for the development of PDRN sources, extraction technologies and cosmetic applications.
- Squadrito F, et al. — Pharmacological Activity and Clinical Use of PDRN. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2017; 8:224. View source Used for the definition of classic PDRN, its salmonid DNA source and its basic characteristics.
- KR20190139633A — Method for Extract of PDRN from Sperm or Spermary of Fish. View patent Used as a published process example for the lysis, centrifugation, DNA precipitation, washing and extraction of fish-derived PDRN.
- KR20180060542A — Wound dressing with chitosan hydrogel and PDRN and a dressing therefor. View patent Only the membrane separation claims are cited here, to illustrate the relationship between separate membrane stages, repeated membrane passes and PDRN molecular-weight fractionation. The patent is cited as a published process example and does not represent Noyain production parameters.
- Public commercial PDRN product information describing targeted enzymatic hydrolysis. Used to show that commercial routes preparing salmon-derived PDRN through targeted enzymatic hydrolysis and multi-stage purification exist in the market. Only the published process description is quoted, and it is not used to compare any specific brand or product quality.
- Noyain Sodium DNA (PDRN) Product Specification / Current Batch Documentation. View PDRN product information Used for the assay, hyperchromicity, endotoxin, molecular weight and process description given for Noyain’s current PDRN. Batch data for a specific commercial lot is governed by the latest COA and technical files.
Related PDRN resources
To go further into PDRN source, quality, molecular weight and formulation use:
