Your PRP Is Only as Young as You Are

What age, inflammation and exosome source mean for your hair and skin — and why stem cells, secretome and exosomes aren't the same thing.

Marie, AlphaCore Health · November 6, 2026

Many people try PRP for thinning hair or tired-looking skin and get mixed results. There's a biological reason for that: PRP is made from you.

Your Blood, Your Baseline

Your blood, your baseline. PRP (platelet-rich plasma) and PRF (platelet-rich fibrin) are made from your own blood. That means what goes into the treatment reflects you at that moment: your age, sex, body weight and overall health.

Research shows the makeup of PRP varies widely from person to person. In one study, older adults had lower levels of IGF-1, a growth factor, and a less favorable balance of growth factors to inflammatory signals than younger adults. Body weight and sex also changed PRP composition.

What this can mean for you: if your system is under strain from age, ongoing inflammation or other health factors, your own platelets may bring that same baseline into the treatment. That's one reason results with PRP and PRF can be less predictable from one person to the next.

Stem Cells, Secretome, Exosomes: Know the Difference

Think of a stem cell as a factory. The secretome is everything the factory ships out. Exosomes are the sealed packages inside that shipment.

• Stem cells: living cells.
• Secretome: everything a cell releases.
• Exosomes: one specific type of vesicle a cell releases, roughly 30–150 nanometers across.

To picture the size difference: if one exosome were the size of a marble, a single stem cell would be roughly the height of a person — about 200 times larger.

Does the Exosome Source Matter?

Where exosomes come from matters. Many exosome products are made from cells taken from adult bone marrow or fat. Those cells have aged along with the donor.

Early laboratory research suggests donor age may change what cells release. In one study, exosomes from older donors' bone marrow cells carried less total genetic cargo (microRNA) than those from younger donors, and behaved differently in lab tests. Another lab study found that vesicles from younger donors' cells shifted older cells toward a younger profile, while vesicles from older donors did the reverse.

Perinatal sources are collected from birth tissue at delivery, the youngest available source.

This research is early and mostly done in the lab. No head-to-head clinical studies prove one exosome source gives better cosmetic results than another.

You Deserve to Know What's in the Vial

The words "stem cells," "exosomes" and "secretome" are often used loosely, and the details aren't always explained. Before any exosome or "stem cell" treatment, ask:

• Is it living cells, secretome or exosomes?
• Where does it come from, and how old was the donor?
• Is it FDA-approved? (Right now, none are.)
• What does the research actually show?

If your provider can't answer, keep asking. We'll always walk you through it.

The Bottom Line

Every option has trade-offs. The right fit depends on your goals, your health and what you're comfortable with. That's a conversation, not a sales pitch.