Polynucleotides in London. What they are, what the evidence currently supports, the protocol, and the claims that run ahead of the data.
Polynucleotides are purified DNA fragments, generally derived from fish, injected into the skin to support the cells that maintain it. They are used for skin quality, thin or crepey skin and the periorbital area. The evidence base is developing and the marketing has moved faster than it.
Conditions this treats
The cost of polynucleotides in London is normally quoted as a course of about three sessions two to four weeks apart. Price is driven by the number of sessions, the area treated, the product used and the practitioner's registration. The evidence base is still developing, which is a reason for measured claims rather than package deals.
Cost follows the assessment rather than preceding it. What treatment costs sets out how a written quotation should be built, and the guide to choosing a skin clinic covers what an unusually low figure has normally had removed from it.
Polynucleotides work gradually. A course of about three sessions produces change assessed six to twelve weeks after starting, against a standardised photograph, and the improvement in skin quality and thickness then fades over months. Maintenance intervals are still being established, which is part of a developing evidence base.
Polynucleotides are chains of nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, purified from a biological source and prepared for injection. The material used in aesthetic practice is generally derived from the milt of salmon or trout, chosen because it can be purified to a high degree and because its structure is close enough to human DNA to be well tolerated.
The proposed mechanism is that these fragments support fibroblasts, the cells that produce collagen and the surrounding matrix, and that they influence the local inflammatory environment. In practice the treatment targets skin that is thin, crepey, dehydrated or poorly supported, rather than skin that has lost shape.
A course of three sessions two to four weeks apart is the usual pattern, sometimes more for the periorbital area or for very thin skin. Product is delivered in small injections across the area, often with a fine cannula around the eyes to reduce bruising.
Because the change is gradual and subtle, photography matters more here than almost anywhere. Without it you are comparing a result to a memory, and memory is generous in both directions. See how to read results.
Polynucleotides are purified DNA fragments, typically derived from salmon or trout, injected into the dermis. They are well tolerated, with swelling, small bumps and bruising the usual effects. Fish allergy is a clear contraindication and any allergy history must be declared. Longer-term safety data remain limited.
Expect numbing cream, then a series of small injections across the treated area, with the appointment taking around thirty minutes. Swelling and small raised bumps are normal for a day or two. Sessions are spaced two to four weeks apart and the result is judged weeks after the last.
Not useful for volume loss, contour, deep static lines, pigmentation or significant laxity. Anyone with a known fish allergy should not have them, and any allergy history should be discussed carefully.
This is where the category has attracted most attention, because the skin around the eyes is genuinely difficult. It is the thinnest on the body, it retains fluid readily, and it tolerates resurfacing poorly. A treatment that improves the quality and thickness of the skin itself, without adding volume or removing the surface, addresses a real gap.
The caution is that the same area shows everything, and that a skin quality treatment will not fix a hollow, a prolapsing fat pad or pigmentation. If darkness under your eyes disappears when you lift the skin gently, it is structural. If it does not, it is pigment or vessels showing through thin skin. See pigmentation for the latter.
This is an adjunct rather than a standalone answer to most concerns, and it works best when it sits in a plan alongside treatments that address different findings. Resurfacing changes texture and pigment. Injected hydration changes water content and elasticity. This category is aimed at the dermal environment and at skin thickness. They are complementary.
Conventional spacing is around two weeks either side of resurfacing in the same area, and around two weeks either side of other injectables, partly so that swelling from one does not obscure the assessment of another and partly so that any reaction can be attributed to the right treatment.
There is also a case for doing one thing at a time that has nothing to do with safety. A treatment assessed on its own can be judged, repeated or abandoned on evidence. Three treatments in one appointment produce a single impression, and if you like the result you will not know which part of it to keep paying for. Across several years that difference is the gap between a considered plan and an expensive habit.
Choosing a practitioner for polynucleotides in London means finding someone who describes a developing treatment accurately. Ask which register they hold, which product they use and its regulatory status, what they expect it to achieve and what it will not, how many sessions are planned, and how progress will be photographed.
There is a pattern that repeats every few years in this field. A material arrives, early results are encouraging, marketing accelerates, and within eighteen months it is offered for every indication by clinics that were not offering it the previous summer. Some of those treatments settle into practice as genuinely useful. Others quietly disappear.
Sitting sensibly inside that cycle does not mean avoiding anything new. It means asking for the reasoning. A practitioner who can explain what the material is proposed to do, which findings in your skin they expect it to change, what they expect it not to change, and how they will assess the outcome, is practising properly regardless of how new the treatment is.
Ask what they used for this indication two years ago and why they changed. The answer is informative either way.
There is a genuine body of work behind the material, and the clinical evidence specifically for cosmetic skin quality use is still developing. That is a reason for measured expectations rather than for avoidance, and a reason to be sceptical of any clinic presenting the results as settled science.
Polynucleotides are not suitable for anyone with a fish allergy, given the source material. They are declined in pregnancy and breastfeeding, over active infection or inflamed skin, and in anyone under eighteen. They do not treat volume loss, laxity or pigmentation, so those findings need a different plan.
The same order every time, with the decision made at assessment rather than at the point of sale.
The skin is examined in consistent light and the finding is named before polynucleotides is discussed as an answer to it. Skin type, medical history, medicines and the routine you are already using all change the plan.
For energy-based treatment, particularly in higher Fitzpatrick types, a test patch and a wait rather than a full treatment on a first visit.
The finding, the treatment, the number of sessions, the interval between them, what you use at home and what it costs, in writing. A typical course is commonly 3 sessions, 2 to 4 weeks apart.
Conservative settings first, escalated across a course on the basis of how your skin actually responded rather than on a fixed protocol.
Written aftercare covering sun protection, what to apply, what to stop and the signs that mean you telephone rather than wait.
Contraindication: fish allergy. Declare any allergy history. Where the finding will not respond to this treatment, that is said plainly and the correct route is discussed instead of a compromise.
Purified DNA fragments, generally derived from salmon or trout. Anyone with a fish allergy should not have them.
Commonly three, two to four weeks apart, sometimes more for the eye area or very thin skin.
No. Skin boosters are hyaluronic acid aimed primarily at hydration. Polynucleotides are a different material with a different proposed mechanism.
They are widely used there for skin quality and thickness. They do not fill a hollow, treat a prolapsing fat pad or remove pigmentation.
There is a genuine body of work behind the material and the clinical evidence for cosmetic skin quality use is still developing. Expect measured claims.
Gradually, with meaningful change generally assessed six to twelve weeks after starting.
Small bumps for a few hours and possible bruising for a few days, particularly around the eyes.
Treatment
Hydration delivered into the skin rather than onto it. Useful where resurfacing is risky.
Read
Treatment
Prepared from your own blood in the same appointment. The variability between clinics is the whole story.
Read
Treatment
The most reliable low-risk texture treatment, and the one most often undermined by home devices.
Read
Tell us what you are seeing on your skin and what you have already tried. You will get a considered reply setting out whether this treatment applies to the finding you have described, what an assessment would need to establish, and what the alternatives are.
hello@aestheticlaunchlab.comPlease do not send clinical photographs or medical records by email. If something has gone wrong after a treatment, contact the practitioner who treated you, or NHS 111, rather than waiting for a reply here.