I am on the cellphone, energy strolling to my appointment whereas attempting to elucidate to my mom what polynucleotides, the process I am about to have, are.
“Fiona, what do you mean you’re on your way to have some injections? What injections?”
Salmon sperm.
Silence.
“I think the line must be bad, I thought you said salmon sperm!”
Yep, that is proper.
One other awkward silence.
“Darling, is this some kind of weird fertility treatment?”
No, undoubtedly not, I inform her, however I agree that it seems like one thing you could wish to file underneath ‘things we wish we didn’t know’. So why am I about to have fish DNA injected into my cheeks and under-eyes?
Again in January, after I was researching widespread aesthetic remedies for 2024, I spoke to Dr. Ash Soni, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, and founding father of The Soni Clinic. “Polynucleotides are the present sizzling subject in our trade,” he said at the time. “The innovation behind that is wonderful – it is a pure method to enhance our pores and skin and tissues on a mobile stage.”
As predicted, he is now performing upwards of 500 polynucleotide procedures a month, especially around the eye area, which is a notoriously gnarly area to treat if you’re not a candidate for tear trough filler. Kim Kardashian has also thrust the procedure into the spotlight by revealing in a recent episode of The Kardashians, “I bought a salmon sperm facial with salmon sperm injected into my face.”
As someone who is perpetually plagued by dark circles and Saturn-size hollows around the eyes, he had my attention.
What are polynucleotides?
To be clear, polynucleotides are a little more invasive than a simple ‘facial’. They are one of a buzzy new breed of bio-stimulators, which are injected beneath the skin’s surface. Once there, “polynucleotides stimulate our own cells to produce some of the things that we lose with ageing, namely the fibroblast cells, which are responsible for producing collagen and elastin,” explains Dr Soni. Imagine your skin as a mattress – elastin is its springs and collagen the stuffing.
To address the elephant in the room, polynucleotides are indeed made up of stretchy molecules from fragments of fish DNA (typically collected from wild salmon or trout sperm through non-harmful ways) that are purified, inactivated and processed before being injected into the skin.
The reason fish DNA is used in the treatment is because it “closely resembles human DNA and has the purest proteins,” Dr Soni says. “Wild salmon are constantly adapting to a changing environment, just as humans are. Polynucleotides communicate with our cells by activating one main receptor, which helps with tissue regeneration.”
In other words, they give sloth-like cells a poke, telling them to behave younger. And while this may sound like a bizarre new TikTok beauty trend, he assures me that polynucleotides are underpinned by science. “They have been studied since the 1980s, when plastic surgeons began pre-treating their patients with polynucleotides to help speed up wound healing,” he adds.
Polynucleotides: The benefits
While polynucleotides will make your skin look plumper, they are not a gel product like filler that sits under the skin to blow up the volume of your cheekbones. The main reason polynucleotides are injected into your skin cells is to “boost collagen, improve tissue regeneration and restore skin tone and elasticity,” Dr Soni says.
