Ingredient intelligence
Adenosine
Hair biology · Adenosine · C10H13N5O4
Adenosine is a purine nucleoside and endogenous agonist studied for signalling and wrinkle-related .
Any underlined term can be tapped for an everyday-English translation.
Molecular identity
- Formula
- C10H13N5O4
- Molecular weight
- 267.24 g/mol
- PubChem CID
- 60961
- ChEBI
- CHEBI:16335
Biological targets
Adenosine receptor A2a (ADORA2A)
high confidenceactivates · receptor
UniProt P29274Fibroblast growth factor 7 (FGF7)
low confidenceassociated with · receptor
UniProt P21781
How could this ingredient interact with biology?
Biological network
Ingredient → molecule → target → gene/protein → pathway → process → studied outcome. Relationship strength is drawn from the curated confidence tier; nothing is added to make the chain look complete.
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4 lower-confidence relationships are hidden at this filter level. Use “Show more biology” to include them.
Text alternative for this network
- Adenosine is molecule Adenosine — high confidence
- Adenosine activates Adenosine receptor A2a (ADORA2A) — high confidence
- Adenosine receptor A2a (ADORA2A) encoded by ADORA2A — high confidence
- ADORA2A participates in Adenosine receptor signalling — high confidence
- Adenosine receptor signalling associated with Dermal papilla signalling — medium confidence
- Adenosine receptor signalling associated with Hair follicle cycling — medium confidence
- Dermal papilla signalling studied in Studied for hair-density and wrinkle endpoints — medium confidence
- Hair follicle cycling studied in Studied for hair-density and wrinkle endpoints — medium confidence
Biological pathways
Adenosine receptor signalling
high confidenceReceptor-mediated cAMP signalling.
Reactome R-HSA-417973
Signalling by FGFR
low confidenceGrowth-factor expression in cells.
Reactome R-HSA-190236
Evidence engine
Moderate
Some human evidence exists, but replication or sample sizes are limited.
Skinceptor Evidence Index
60
experimental · of 100
This index is a research-navigation aid describing how much evidence exists and how it was produced. It is not a medical safety score, an efficacy guarantee, or a clinical recommendation.
Study composition
- Human1
- Randomised controlled trial1
- Total studies
- 2
- Human studies
- 2
- Largest sample
- 30
- Range
- 2008–2013
Index breakdown
- Study design quality80% × 28%
Mean design weight across curated studies (meta-analysis 1.0, RCT 0.9, other human 0.7, review 0.45, animal 0.35, in-vitro 0.25).
- Human evidence share67% × 22%
Proportion of curated evidence measured in people rather than cells or animals.
- Evidence volume50% × 14%
Log-scaled count of curated studies, so volume alone cannot dominate the score.
- Largest sample size49% × 12%
Log-scaled largest reported sample size across curated human studies.
- Replication67% × 12%
Independent human studies, capped at three; one study is never treated as replicated.
- Recency35% × 7%
Linear decay over a twenty-year window from the most recent curated publication.
- Source traceability0% × 5%
Share of curated studies with a verified PMID or DOI in this dataset.
Insufficient comparable evidence for quantitative synthesis.
Research timeline
How the evidence accumulated
2008
Adenosine and dermal papilla growth-factor expression in androgenetic alopecia
Humann = 30 · Journal of Dermatological Science
2013
Adenosine increases hair thickness in women with female pattern hair loss
Randomised controlled trialn = 30 · Journal of Dermatology
Ingredient fingerprint
12 nodes · 18 relationships · seed "adenosine"
The fingerprint is a deterministic visual signature: ridge amplitude comes from the number of entities in each tier, node placement from identifier hashes, and opacity from confidence. Two ingredients can never produce the same figure unless their networks are identical.
Open in Biology as Art →Research
2 curated studies
Adenosine increases hair thickness in women with female pattern hair loss
Reported increased anagen hair ratio and thick hair rate compared with control lotion.
Limitations — Small sample; industry-sponsored; identifier not verified during curation.
Adenosine and dermal papilla growth-factor expression in androgenetic alopecia
Reported increased thick-hair ratio with topical adenosine, with associated FGF7 expression changes in dermal papilla cells.
Limitations — Small, largely single-centre; identifier not verified during curation.
Community evidence
Submitted by readers
Reader submissions appear here only after review. They are not part of the curated dataset and do not affect the Skinceptor Evidence Index.
No approved community submissions yet.
Sources
- PubChem 60961Verified 2026-09-14
- UniProt P29274Verified 2026-09-14
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