PDRN — the salmon-DNA ingredient of Korean clinic injections — moved into eye creams over the past year, and searches for "pdrn eye cream" grew about fivefold in a year. This page answers two questions the jar cannot: what the labels actually declare, and what the research on PDRN on the eye area, rather than injected under it, contains. It sits beside our PDRN cream census, which read 45 face-cream labels; here the subject is the periorbital product and the periorbital evidence only.
The label census: 12 eye products
On 3 October 2026 we read the ingredient lists of every leave-on eye cream, eye serum and eye roller with PDRN in its name that INCIDecoder returned for "pdrn eye", "pdrn eye cream" and "pdrn eye serum" — 12 products. Positions were counted from the recorded list, with each slash-joined name and 1,2-hexanediol counted once.
| Finding | Count |
|---|---|
| Products read | 12 |
| Declare Sodium DNA | 10 |
| Declare no DNA ingredient at all | 2 |
| Median position of Sodium DNA (of the 10) | 19.5th |
| Range | 7th of 26 → 39th of 87 |
| DNA in the second half of the list | 3 of 10 |
| DNA listed last | 1 (34th of 34) |
| State an amount for the DNA | 2 of 10 |
| Also declare a signal peptide | 5 of 10 |
| Also declare caffeine | 4 of 10 |
Two lists carried PDRN in the product name but no DNA ingredient. We do not name them: a database copy can be an older or incomplete version of a label, and a gap in a transcription is not a finding about a brand. A third eye cream returned for "salmon" declared salmon oil (0.1%), not salmon DNA — a different ingredient that shares the fish.
For comparison, our earlier censuses found the DNA at a median 22nd of 45 in face creams and 14th of 37 in face serums. The eye products sit between the two.
The two stated amounts, against the one trial dose
Two of the ten labels give a figure:
| Labelled amount | As a percentage | Times below the 0.1% trial cream |
|---|---|---|
| Sodium DNA 100 ppb (an eye roller serum) | 0.00001% | 10,000× |
| Sodium DNA 3.45 ppm (VT's PDRN Reedle Shot Eye Lifter) | 0.000345% | ~290× |
The 0.1% figure is from the one randomized topical eye-area trial, described below. The comparison is our arithmetic from the labels and the paper; it says nothing about what either product does, only how far the declared amounts are from the amount that was tested.
A third figure appears in a product name. The Ordinary's Lacto-PDRN 4% + B9 Eye Cream describes its Lacto-PDRN as "a microbial-derived vegan alternative to salmon-PDRN". Its published list declares Lactobacillus Ferment at 6th and Sodium DNA at 7th of 26. The page does not say how much of the 4% is DNA and how much is the ferment, so the 4% is a figure for the named complex, not for DNA. It is also a reminder that "PDRN" on a pack does not mean salmon: a 2025 study tested a PDRN made from peony root.
What the research holds on the eye area
On 3 October 2026, PubMed returned 38 records combining PDRN, polynucleotide, sodium DNA or salmon DNA with an eye-area term. Read one by one — several matched only because "crow's" also catches "crowding" in unrelated chemistry papers — the clinical records divide sharply:
| Route | What we found |
|---|---|
| Injected under or around the eye | Nearly all of the clinical records: polynucleotide fillers for crow's feet and the tear trough, split-face comparisons with hyaluronic acid and polycaprolactone, observational and case reports. One of those comparison trials was retracted in 2026, and the retracted-publication filter returned two records in all |
| Topical on the eye area | Two studies, both connected to companies |
The two topical studies:
- Ye 2026, PLoS One (PMID 42430369). A randomized, double-blind, split-face trial comparing a 0.1% medium-length PDRN eye cream with a 0.1% retinol eye cream over 28 days, in 31 women with sensitive skin. The PDRN side improved about twice as much on periocular wrinkles, dermal thickness and density, and eye-bag measures. Two of its author affiliations are biotechnology companies. There was no PDRN-free version of the same cream, so the trial shows the PDRN cream did better than a retinol cream, not that PDRN did the work. Its laboratory sections report PDRN signal reaching the living epidermis in a skin model and a small human pilot.
- Bak 2025, Int J Mol Sci (PMID 41516097). A peony-derived PDRN, mostly tested in cells; clinically, a 10-person barrier-recovery test and a statement that periorbital elasticity improved after four weeks. All six authors were employed by the company that makes the ingredient.
No published trial has tested any eye cream sold to consumers. The wider picture — why the size of DNA fragments makes the cream route the hard one, and what injection studies show — is on our PDRN page and our page on longer-chain polynucleotides, including its section on retracted papers. Every injected eye-area study, with its design and what it was compared against, is tabled in our census of under-eye polynucleotide studies.
The other actives in the jar
Half of the DNA-declaring products also declare a signal peptide — most often copper tripeptide-1, acetyl hexapeptide-8 or a Matrixyl peptide, and in three of the five within the last fifth of the list. Our peptide eye cream census reads that evidence separately. Four declare caffeine, at positions 4, 9, 33 and 43. Five further products returned by the same searches were hydrogel patches or sheet masks rather than creams; one of them states 2,580 ppm of Sodium DNA. Patches are a different format with a different evidence record, set out on our peptide eye patches page.
What this page cannot establish
- Whether any PDRN eye cream on sale changes wrinkles, puffiness or dark circles. No such product has been tested in a published trial.
- How much DNA the eight products that state no amount contain.
- Whether the DNA in a given product is from salmon, microbes or plants, unless the brand says so.
Anyone with sudden swelling, a persistent change or discomfort around the eyes should see a doctor rather than change products.
Sources
- INCIDecoder product ingredient lists, 3 October 2026: searches "pdrn eye", "pdrn eye cream", "pdrn eye serum" and "salmon eye cream" (12 leave-on eye products, 5 patches or masks).
- The Ordinary, Lacto-PDRN 4% + B9 Eye Cream product page, description and ingredient list, theordinary.com, read 3 October 2026.
- PubMed E-utilities, 3 October 2026: PDRN / polydeoxyribonucleotide / polynucleotide / sodium DNA / salmon DNA AND eye-area terms (38 records, read one by one); same with "Retracted Publication"[pt] (2).
- Ye R et al. Topical medium-length PDRN enhances dermal extracellular matrix repair in photodamaged skin via PI3K-Akt/TGF-β-regulated pathways. PLoS One 2026;21(7):e0350905 (PMID 42430369).
- Bak SU et al. Anti-aging efficacy of low-molecular-weight polydeoxyribonucleotide derived from Paeonia lactiflora. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2025;27(1):220 (PMID 41516097).
- Our PDRN cream (45 labels, 2 October 2026) and PDRN serum (39 labels, 27 September 2026) censuses, for the comparison medians.