Is RE20 made from cadaver skin?
Yes. RE20 is how most people write the name. Its maker writes it Re2O, the full product name is Elravie Re2O, and the name is said to mean "return to your 20s". In Chinese-language media it is nicknamed 尸皮针, "cadaver skin jab". The medical description is particulated human acellular dermal matrix, shortened to hADM. In plain words, it is donated skin with the donor's cells taken out, cut into small particles, leaving the collagen-rich scaffold of the dermis.
The maker prefers a different phrase. L&C Bio has said it should be described as human-derived acellular allogeneic dermis and not as a cadaver skin injection. The words differ and the source is the same: skin from a donor who has died.
Donating skin is a gift. The questions in this article are about evidence, consent records, regulation and use. They are not about the donors.
How is donated skin made into a skin booster?
What follows is the maker's account, as reported in Korean press and in a 2026 trial paper. Statements that come from the company are labelled as the company's.
- Donation. Skin from deceased donors in the United States passes through accredited tissue banks. L&C Bio says the donors consented in advance to cosmetic use. That is the company's statement, not an independent finding.
- Removing the cells. The tissue is processed so that the donor's cells are removed. The company says cells and DNA are removed.
- What remains. The collagen-rich scaffold of the skin, called the extracellular matrix. That is what "acellular dermal matrix" means.
- Particles. The scaffold is particulated, meaning cut into small particles. In the 2026 trial the test product was 1.5 mL containing about 56 mg of these particles with 7.5 mg of hyaluronic acid, injected into the middle layer of the dermis.
The sources read for this article do not set out how donors or the tissue are screened, so this article does not describe it. It is a fair thing to ask for.
What does "acellular" tell you, and what does it not?
Acellular means the cells have been taken out. It describes the aim of the process. It does not say what is left in a given vial, and the sources read here include no independent testing of finished product.
Some surgeons doubt that removal is complete. In HK01 on 17 Sep 2026, Dr Chen Youbai of the Chinese Association of Plastic Surgeons said decellularisation may not remove every cell, so fragments of donor genetic material could remain. Dr Xue Ke of Shanghai said products from donor skin need 5 to 10 years of follow-up and that clinical data are relatively lacking. These are their views as reported, not established findings.
The data we have are limited. The single published trial followed 20 adults for 20 weeks and reported no serious adverse events, only mild, short-lived redness and swelling. Its authors say 20 weeks is too short to show long-term or delayed side effects. L&C Bio reports about 300,000 procedures with no serious adverse events. That is a company figure and not an independent safety study.
What about donors, consent and who should receive donated skin?
L&C Bio says donors consented in advance to cosmetic use. Consent records are the company's to show. We have not seen them, and this article cannot confirm them.
A second question is priority. Dr Cui Haiyan of Tongji Hospital told HK01 that donated skin is a precious medical resource and should go to serious medical use first. That is her view as reported. It is a question about use, and it applies to any donated tissue.
Regulation differs by country, and it matters for what you can check. In Korea the product is supplied as human tissue under the Human Tissue Act, not approved as a medical device or a medicine. Korean reporting in April 2026 called that a regulatory blind spot, and two ministries said they were reviewing further measures. In Hong Kong, the Department of Health seized 20 vials of Elravie Re2O on 21 Oct 2026, as set out in the article on what the seizure means in Malaysia. On 26 Oct 2026 we could not find it on Malaysia's medical device register or NPRA's product list. The article on what RE20 is covers the trial in full.
How is this different from other skin boosters?
Most skin boosters people ask about are not human tissue. Profhilo is hyaluronic acid, Rejuran is made of purified DNA fragments usually taken from salmon or trout, and Sculptra is poly-L-lactic acid, a man-made polymer that prompts the skin to build its own collagen. The skinbooster types article sorts these groups. A side-by-side table of what each is made of, how much evidence it has and whether it is on Malaysia's register is in RE20 compared with Rejuran, Profhilo and Sculptra. No trial has compared RE20 with any of them.
What does Dr Ong think?
Dr Ong Jin Khang said on 26 October 2026: "I'm really not sure of the results and I for one feel it's very icky to inject cadaver tissue."
The first half of that sentence has an answer in the evidence: one small trial, 20 weeks, a maker-supplied product. The second half is a question of what each person is comfortable with, and it is theirs to answer.
