What is EGF?

Anti-aging products can be tricky to navigate because despite the price tag, their effects are often preventative or invisible. 

What is EGF?

EGF stands for epidermal growth factor, which is a single-chain, non-glycosylated protein that naturally occurs in our skin cells. Its main purpose is to heal our skin by promoting DNA synthesis and cell proliferation. Once it binds to EGFR, which is its receptor, on the surface of the cell, the combination of the two kickstarts several signaling pathways that ultimately lead to results such as cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival.

As the healing factor for your body, EGF helps repair skin as well as corneal, intestinal, and mucosal wounds. The discovery of EGF won biologist Rita Levi-Montalcini and biochemist Stanley Cohen the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986.

What are the Skin Benefits of EGF?
EGF has many benefits for your skin, including wrinkle improvement, hydration, and pigmentation prevention. The process by which EGF encourages cell growth also stimulates the division of keratinocytes and fibroblasts, which then synthesize fibrous proteins that improve skin elasticity such as collagen and elastin.

If you’re looking to hydrate, brighten, and reduce the appearance of wrinkles all at once, a product with EGF may be worth a try. But as always, which EGF product you should use would depend on your skin type and the products themselves, so it’s important to ask questions and do your research before reaching for this all-in-one ingredient.