ECM Atlas
A technical reference on the materials used in medical aesthetics.
Regulatory identity across markets
The same material is classified differently from market to market. This table is the reason this site exists.
| Material | KR | EU | US | JP | CN | VN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absorbable polyester — thread | ||||||
| PDO (Polydioxanone) A synthetic absorbable polyester long used in surgical suture, and the material behind most absorbable lifting threads. It is unusual in this reference because its aesthetic use is mechanical first — a thread placed to reposition tissue — with a biostimulatory response reported alongside it. | MD | MD | MD | — | — | — |
| Aliphatic polyester copolymer | ||||||
| PLGA (Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)) A copolymer of lactic and glycolic acid, widely used in resorbable medical products. In aesthetics the application described in the literature is the resorbable thread rather than the injected particulate biostimulator. | MD | MD | — | — | — | — |
| Biostimulator — aliphatic polyester | ||||||
| PCL (Polycaprolactone) A synthetic biodegradable polyester used as a dermal biostimulatory material. It has a low melting point and a slow hydrolytic breakdown that the literature describes as longer than for lactic-acid-based polyesters. | MD | MD | — | — | — | — |
| PDLLA (Poly-D,L-lactic acid) A synthetic biodegradable polyester used as a dermal biostimulatory material. Being racemic, it is amorphous rather than semi-crystalline, and hydrolyses to lactic acid monomers over time. | MD | MD | — | — | — | — |
| PLLA (Poly-L-lactic acid) A synthetic biodegradable polyester used as a dermal biostimulatory material. Unlike the racemic form, it is built from a single stereoisomer and is semi-crystalline, which is associated with slower hydrolytic breakdown. | MD | MD | MD | — | — | — |
| Biostimulator — ceramic microsphere | ||||||
| CaHA (Calcium hydroxylapatite) A calcium phosphate ceramic used as a dermal biostimulatory material. The mineral phase is chemically identical to the inorganic component of bone. | MD | MD | MD | — | — | — |
| Cell-derived vesicle preparation | ||||||
| Exosomes (Extracellular vesicles) Lipid-bilayer vesicles secreted by most cell types, reported at 30 to 150 nanometres, carrying proteins, lipids and nucleic acids between cells. Unlike the other entries in this atlas they are not a defined chemical substance but a preparation, and what a given product contains depends on the source cell and the isolation method. | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| ECM component — crosslinked polysaccharide | ||||||
| Crosslinked HA (Crosslinked hyaluronic acid) Hyaluronic acid chemically crosslinked into a hydrogel so that it resists enzymatic breakdown and holds shape under load. Crosslinking is what separates a filler from a plain solution of the same polysaccharide, and the degree and chemistry of that crosslinking is what product literature describes when it reports rheology. | MD | MD | MD | — | — | — |
| ECM component — polysaccharide | ||||||
| Non-crosslinked HA (Non-crosslinked hyaluronic acid) Hyaluronic acid injected without being chemically linked into a network. It does not hold shape and is cleared far sooner than the crosslinked form, so the literature discusses it under skin quality and hydration rather than volume. This is the material behind most products described as skin boosters or bio-revitalisers. | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| ECM structural protein — animal-derived | ||||||
| Animal-derived collagen Collagen extracted from animal tissue, most often bovine, porcine or marine, and processed for use in dressings, scaffolds and injectable products. It is the long-established source of collagen biomaterials and the comparator against which recombinant production is presented in the literature. | — | — | MD | — | — | — |
| ECM structural protein — recombinant | ||||||
| rhCollagen (Recombinant human collagen) Collagen produced by expressing human collagen gene sequences in a host organism rather than extracting protein from animal tissue. The literature presents the source as the point of the material: it removes the animal-tissue disease and immunogenicity questions that attach to extracted collagen, and it allows a defined type to be produced. | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| ECM-derived scaffold — decellularised human dermis | ||||||
| hADM (Human acellular dermal matrix) Donated human dermis processed to remove cells while retaining the extracellular matrix. Unlike the synthetic polymers on this site it supplies matrix rather than provoking the host to build it, and it sits in a different regulatory lane. | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Neuromodulator — bacterial neurotoxin protein | ||||||
| Botulinum toxin type A A purified neurotoxin protein that blocks acetylcholine release at the neuromuscular junction, reducing the muscle contraction that creates dynamic lines. It is the one entry in this reference that does not act on the extracellular matrix at all, and the only one classified as a prescription medicine rather than a device. | RX | — | RX | — | — | — |
| Nucleotide-derived agent | ||||||
| PDRN (Polydeoxyribonucleotide) A mixture of DNA-derived polymer fragments, typically of marine origin, used in wound and skin applications. Distinct from the polymer biostimulators in that it is not a particulate scaffold. | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| PN (Polynucleotide) A DNA-derived biopolymer of the same family as PDRN, distinguished in the review literature by chain length and molecular weight. Reviews attribute extracellular matrix remodelling to the longer fragments that define PN, in contrast to the receptor-level activity attributed to the shorter PDRN fragments. The two names are frequently used interchangeably in practice despite that separation. | — | — | — | — | — | — |
COS cosmetic · MD medical device · RX drug · — not established in public sources
Comparisons
- How does PCL stimulate collagen compared to PDLLA?
- What is the difference between an ECM-derived matrix and a synthetic collagen biostimulator?
- What is the difference between botulinum toxin and hyaluronic acid filler?
- What is the difference between CaHA and hyaluronic acid filler?
- What is the difference between CaHA and PLLA as collagen biostimulators?
- What is the difference between crosslinked and non-crosslinked hyaluronic acid?
- What is the difference between exosomes and PDRN?
- What is the difference between PDLLA and PLLA in aesthetic use?
- What is the difference between PDO threads and PLLA?
- What is the difference between polynucleotide and polydeoxyribonucleotide?
- What is the difference between recombinant human collagen and animal-derived collagen for skin?
Mechanisms
Delivery & context
The conditions under which a material reaches the dermis — not the outcome.
- Energy modalities and the tissue response How do energy-based devices stimulate collagen compared with injected materials?
- The Skin Barrier and Delivery Routes Under what conditions does a topical formulation reach below the stratum corneum?