ExoSmart Regenerative Therapy: The Complete Treatment Process Explained
If you have been exploring regenerative treatments for skin rejuvenation, hair restoration, or tissue repair, you may have come across ExoSmart – a newer approach that takes the science of PRP one significant step further.
Unlike traditional PRP, which concentrates platelets from just one fraction of your blood, ExoSmart processes your entire plasma – capturing a broader range of growth factors, extracellular vesicles, and exosomes that standard PRP leaves behind.
The result is a more complete regenerative concentrate, produced from your own blood, processed at point of care, and delivered fresh on the same day.
This guide explains exactly how ExoSmart works, what happens during the treatment from first blood draw to final injection, and what makes its technology different from the PRP protocols most clinics currently offer.
What Is ExoSmart?
ExoSmart is a CE-MDR-certified medical device and processing system designed to produce a concentrated regenerative product from a patient’s own blood. It is used in regenerative medicine and aesthetic treatments including skin rejuvenation, hair restoration, and tissue repair.
CE-MDR certification means the device has been independently assessed and approved as a medical device under the EU Medical Device Regulation – one of the most stringent regulatory frameworks in the world for this category of equipment. This is not a cosmetic device; it is a medically regulated system.
The key distinction from standard PRP is what ExoSmart concentrates. Rather than isolating platelets from one fraction of the blood, ExoSmart processes the complete plasma – retaining not just platelets but the full plasma secretome: growth factors, extracellular vesicles, and exosomes that sit across both the platelet-rich and platelet-poor fractions of your blood.
The treatment is autologous, meaning it uses your own blood with no synthetic additives, foreign substances, or external growth factors introduced into the process.
The Science: What Makes ExoSmart Different?
To understand why ExoSmart represents a step forward from standard PRP, it helps to understand what standard PRP discards.
What standard PRP does
A conventional PRP treatment draws blood, spins it in a centrifuge to separate the layers, and collects the platelet-rich plasma (PRP) fraction – the layer that contains a high concentration of platelets and their associated growth factors. The platelet-poor plasma (PPP) – the remaining plasma once the platelets are removed – is typically discarded.
That is where the problem lies. A significant proportion of the circulating extracellular vesicles (EVs) and soluble growth factors in your blood – including exosomes – sit in the platelet-poor fraction. Standard PRP removes this fraction and throws it away.
What ExoSmart does differently
ExoSmart combines both fractions – the PRP and the PPP – and processes them together. The combined plasma (roughly 25 to 30 ml) passes through a precision ultrafiltration cartridge: 870 hollow fibres arranged in a cylinder, with a 15 kDa membrane cutoff.
The flow moves tangentially across the fibres – not straight through them. Anything smaller than 15 kDa (primarily water and salt) passes out of the cartridge as filtrate. Everything larger – growth factors, extracellular vesicles including exosomes, platelets, fibrin, and plasma proteins – stays in the retentate.
What comes out is approximately 6 to 7 ml of concentrated autologous secretome: the complete active biology of your plasma, not just the platelet fraction.
The tangential flow serves a second purpose beyond concentration. The mechanical shear it generates activates a substantial portion of the platelets through a process called mechanotransduction – without the need for calcium chloride, thrombin, or any chemical activation agent. This means you get immediate soluble-cargo release from activated platelets, plus an intact platelet fraction that continues releasing after injection.
In short: ExoSmart delivers the complete secretome – the vesicles, the growth factors, and the activated platelets – in one 6 to 7 ml dose, from your own blood, ready to inject.
The ExoSmart Treatment Process: Step by Step
One of the practical advantages of ExoSmart is how cleanly it fits into a standard clinic appointment. The full workflow – from blood draw to injection – runs between 20 and 30 minutes.
Here is what happens at each stage.
Step 1 – Consultation and Assessment
Before any blood is drawn, your practitioner conducts a thorough consultation. This covers your medical history, any medications you are taking (particularly NSAIDs or blood thinners), your treatment goals, and an assessment of the target area – whether that is your skin, scalp, or another site.
At Wellbeing Aesthetic, no treatment begins without this assessment. Understanding your health and your goals is not a formality; it determines whether ExoSmart is the right choice for you, and if so, exactly how it should be delivered.
Step 2 – Blood Draw
Approximately 60 ml of blood is drawn from your arm using a standard venepuncture technique, collected into tubes containing ACD (Acid Citrate Dextrose) – an anticoagulant solution that prevents clotting during processing.
To put this in context: 60 ml represents roughly 1.2 percent of your total blood volume. This is comparable to a standard blood test and well within the range your body handles without any physiological effect. Most patients report minimal discomfort at this stage – no different from routine bloodwork.
Step 3 – Centrifugation
The collected blood is placed in a centrifuge – any validated PRP centrifuge already used in the clinic will work; ExoSmart is not tied to proprietary spinning hardware. The spin separates the blood into its component layers and isolates the plasma.
The key difference from standard PRP at this stage: rather than selecting only the platelet-rich fraction, ExoSmart uses both the PRP and the PPP. Both fractions are combined, giving approximately 25 to 30 ml of whole plasma to process.
Step 4 – Ultrafiltration
This is the step that makes ExoSmart distinct from every standard PRP protocol.
The combined plasma goes into the ExoSmart device – a compact unit approximately the size of a large syringe barrel, held in the hand. There is no pump, no power source, no cold chain required.
The practitioner pushes the plasma through the hollow-fibre cartridge by hand. As the plasma flows tangentially across the 870 fibres, water and small molecules pass out through the 15 kDa membrane as filtrate, while everything above the 15 kDa cutoff – the growth factors, exosomes, extracellular vesicles, platelets, fibrin, and plasma proteins – remains concentrated in the retentate.
The concentration takes 3 to 5 minutes. During this time, the resistance in the device builds as the volume reduces; the colour of the concentrate deepens to amber as it condenses. What begins as 25 to 30 ml becomes 6 to 7 ml of concentrated autologous secretome.
Step 5 – Injection
The concentrate is injected fresh – within 30 minutes of processing. There is no freezing, no storage, no banking. This is a single-session, point-of-care process: one draw, one device, one concentrate, one patient.
The injection site and technique depend on the treatment area and your individual goals. For skin rejuvenation, the concentrate is typically delivered via micro-injections into the dermis. For hair restoration, it is injected into the scalp in a targeted pattern across the treatment zone. Your practitioner will explain exactly how the injection will be performed based on your specific case.
Step 6 – Aftercare
The two most important aftercare rules both address the same underlying principle: ExoSmart is designed to initiate a specific inflammatory repair response. Anything that suppresses that inflammatory phase reduces the effectiveness of what you have just had done.
NSAIDs: Stop taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen) at least one week before your appointment and for two weeks after. If you need a pain reliever in the post-treatment period, paracetamol is the appropriate option – it manages discomfort without interfering with the inflammatory cascade the treatment is designed to start.
No ice: Avoid applying ice to the treated area. Ice suppresses the localised inflammatory response that ExoSmart is specifically triggering. Mild redness or sensitivity in the treated area in the days following the session is the process working as intended.
Follow-up: A standard ExoSmart protocol is a single session, with a follow-up appointment at four to six weeks to assess the response. Your practitioner will advise at that point whether further sessions are appropriate based on your results.
What Can ExoSmart Treat?
ExoSmart is used across a range of aesthetic and regenerative applications. The most common uses at a medical aesthetic clinic include:
- Skin rejuvenation – improving overall skin quality, texture, and luminosity where collagen stimulation and cellular repair are the primary goals
- Fine lines and early wrinkles – particularly in areas where the skin is losing elasticity and early signs of ageing are becoming visible
- Acne scarring – stimulating repair and remodelling in skin that carries textural scarring from previous breakouts
- Hair restoration – addressing hair thinning by delivering concentrated growth factors and regenerative signals directly into the scalp
- Skin quality improvement – supporting the biological processes that underpin collagen production, hydration, and skin tone
- Wound healing and tissue repair – in clinical settings where regenerative support for tissue recovery is required
ExoSmart vs PRP: What Is the Practical Difference?
| Standard PRP | ExoSmart | |
|---|---|---|
| Blood fractions used | PRP fraction only | PRP + PPP (whole plasma) |
| What is concentrated | Platelets | Full plasma secretome: platelets, growth factors, exosomes, EVs |
| Platelet activation | Chemical (calcium chloride / thrombin) | Mechanical (tangential flow / shear) |
| Volume of concentrate | Variable | 6 to 7 ml |
| Processing time | 15 to 20 minutes | 20 to 30 minutes |
| Cold chain needed | No | No |
| Regulatory status | Varies by kit | CE-MDR certified device |
The key practical takeaway: standard PRP produces a platelet-focused concentrate from part of your plasma. ExoSmart produces a whole-secretome concentrate from all of your plasma. The payload is fundamentally different.
A note on evidence: ExoSmart concentrates the secretome and the extracellular vesicles, and it activates the platelets mechanically. It does not activate exosomes – the vesicles are concentrated, not triggered by the device itself. While clinical experience with ExoSmart is promising, high-quality long-term evidence for this specific system is still developing. The clinical evidence for PRP itself is well-established; ExoSmart builds on that foundation with a more complete concentration approach.
Is ExoSmart Right for You?
ExoSmart is likely to be a strong option for patients who have already tried PRP and want to explore a more advanced regenerative approach, or for those starting from a higher baseline who want the most complete autologous treatment available.
It is autologous – your own blood, no foreign substances – so it carries the same low risk profile as PRP in terms of immune reaction or rejection.
A consultation with your practitioner is the only way to determine whether ExoSmart is the most appropriate treatment for your specific goals. Some patients are better served by standard PRP, polynucleotides, or a combination approach depending on what they are trying to address. At Wellbeing Aesthetic, we will always give you an honest assessment of what is most likely to help your situation rather than simply recommending the most advanced option on the menu.
ExoSmart at Wellbeing Aesthetic in Croydon
At Wellbeing Aesthetic, we offer ExoSmart as part of our advanced regenerative treatment portfolio. Led by Dr. Huma Saeed – a medically trained professional with extensive NHS clinical experience – every treatment we deliver is grounded in medical knowledge, patient safety, and honest guidance.
We work with patients across Croydon, South London, and the surrounding areas who are looking for regenerative treatments that are medically led, evidence-informed, and genuinely tailored to their individual skin and health profile.
If you are considering ExoSmart and want to understand whether it is the right option for your goals, your first step is a consultation with our team. We will assess your needs, explain exactly what the treatment involves, and give you a clear, honest recommendation.
Conclusion
ExoSmart represents a meaningful step forward from standard PRP by processing the complete plasma secretome rather than just the platelet-rich fraction.
The treatment takes 20 to 30 minutes, fits within a normal appointment slot, uses your own blood, and requires no freezing or complex cold chain. The concentrated autologous secretome is injected fresh on the day of treatment, with clear aftercare rules designed to protect the regenerative response it initiates.
Whether ExoSmart is the right treatment for you depends on your specific goals, health profile, and treatment history – which is why the consultation always comes first.
Book your consultation with the team at Wellbeing Aesthetic and find out whether ExoSmart regenerative therapy is the next step for your skin or hair.
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