The first thing is it causes them to be absorbed to deep tissue. Because peptides are relatively smaller than their source proteins, they are often used in cosmetics, where they can partially be absorbed at the skin’s surface. However, untreated peptides (non-Sigmolecs®) cannot penetrate deep tissue and do not emit any signals into the extracellular matrix. For over-the-counter cosmetics this is not an issue. There are no OTC cosmetics that penetrate to the depths of the dermis, whether they contain peptides or not.
In transdermal applications for medical treatments such as in regenerative medicine, pain therapy and some metabolic treatments, peptides must penetrate below the dermis to the superficial fascia. For this reason, most of these regenerative medical treatments are administered through injection into this deep tissue region. It is within this hypodermis that actives can work and induce physiological responses of regeneration.
Peptides do not necessarily have to be physically absorbed, but their fingerprint signal must attain the extracellular matrix where cell types pick up instructions to carry out physiological repair. The hypodermis is where this occurs whether from transdermal penetration or vascular flow or injection. From this point, any active will reach the joint; such as with hyaluronic acid injections, or stem cells or PRP, they need to be injected to reach their target region.
Sigmolecs® technology can bypass the injection by applying the actives to the surface of the skin at the region of interest (ROI) that requires treatment. However, a covering (or patch) must be applied to the area where the gel is placed, mostly to prevent oxygen from entering the transdermal process.
Sigmolecs® is truly a manifestation of forward technology from nature. It is currently being used in medical devices and regenerative medical cosmetics and treatments around the world to offer a non-invasive transdermal application to replace hypodermal injection.