KUAM

Adenosine

Adenosine: one placebo-controlled trial found smoother eye-area lines; evidence for acne scars, sensitive skin and pores is limited.

What it is

Adenosine is a naturally occurring molecule used in leave-on skincare, mainly in anti-wrinkle creams. Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) lists adenosine at 0.04% among its notified anti-wrinkle ingredients. In Korea, a cosmetic may claim a functional benefit such as wrinkle improvement only under MFDS rules, and products using an ingredient from the MFDS list at the listed amount can make that claim without submitting new efficacy data.

Evidence grades by concern

ConcernGradeCitations
Acne scarring and marksCAbella 2006, Korea MFDS 2025
Contact irritation / allergy-proneCAbella 2006
Enlarged pores / blackheadsCAbella 2006

Grade A: strong guideline recommendations or Korean MFDS notified actives. B: randomized controlled trials or systematic reviews. C: mechanism, small or uncontrolled studies.

What the evidence shows

Adenosine is MFDS-notified for wrinkle improvement (0.04%). KUAM has no wrinkle concern, so that notification does not translate into a grade here; the rows below are graded on what the cited trial actually measured.

Acne scarring and marksC

The evidence is limited. In a blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of 126 women aged 45 to 65, a cream and a dissolvable film containing adenosine, applied twice daily for 2 months, made the skin around the eyes significantly smoother, with improvement seen from week 3; the cream also improved frown lines between the eyebrows (Abella 2006). The study measured wrinkles, not acne scars, and no study in our file measured acne scars.

Contact irritation / allergy-proneC

The evidence is indirect. The trial above was designed to measure wrinkles, and its published abstract does not report irritation results (Abella 2006). No study in our file measured whether adenosine calms irritated or reactive skin.

Enlarged pores / blackheadsC

The evidence is limited. The trial above measured lines around the eyes and between the eyebrows, not pores (Abella 2006), and our evidence file has no study that measured pore size.

What it does not do

Adenosine's evidence is about wrinkles. Neither the MFDS notification nor the cited trial covers acne scars, sensitive skin or pores directly. The trial lasted 2 months and enrolled only women aged 45 to 65.

Safety

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References