Growth factors are proteins that regulate cellular growth, proliferation and differentiation under controlled conditions. They play an essential part in maintaining healthy skin structure and function. Growth factors are secreted by all cell types, the epidermis and dermis including keratinocytes, fibroblasts and melanocytes.

Growth factors are not growth hormones. They are natural substances made by the skin cells that support the repair of damaged skin, as a result of ageing or environmental factors. They promote the formation of collagen and elastin to provide firmness and elasticity. Unfortunately cells in an ageing skin make fewer growth factors than cells in a young skin. Therefore, to support the levels of skin rejuvenation is to regularly use skin care products with a high concentration of stable growth factors. Daily use of skin care products containing growth factors is known to help reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles and improve skin tone and texture.

There has been many debates as to whether topically applied growth factors can penetrate the skin enough to be effective. Growth factors have a large molecular size that prevents them from entering the epidermis. However, several clinical studies have highlighted the benefits of topically applied growth factor products showing improvements in the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, texture, and pigmentation. Combinations of growth factors with antioxidants (eg, vitamin C) and peptides (eg,cytokines) tend to show results sooner, typically within 4–8 weeks. When growth factors are applied to the skin in high concentrations, a small fraction penetrates the superficial epidermis, and initiates a communication chain that leads to stimulation of dermal fibroblasts to produce collagen. I use growth factors in conjunction with  needling, dermastamp, chemial peels and light therapy treatments and the results are phenomenal.

There are multiple sources of growth factors. They can be derived from several different human cells grown in a laboratory (skin cells, bone marrow stem cells, fat stem cells), extracted from one’s blood or bioengineered from non-human sources such as snails and some plants. However, fat stem cells are likely to produce growth factors that help the functioning of fat cells, bone marrow stem cells are likely to produce growth factors that improve the functioning of the bone marrow. So the ideal growth factors for the skin would be produced by fibroblasts. It is well known that dermal growth factors outperform growth factors derived from other kinds of human stem cells, like fat cells, as well as non-human sources of stem cells, such as snails and plants.

Plants produce growth factors conducive to their biological functions and are a completely different organism as their biology is obviously far different from humans. More specifically, our cellular biological activities are different, including the way we repair cellular damage. Therefore, any plant Growth Factor does not work on humans.