ECM Co. (Extracellular-matrix Laboratory) is a venture business established in 05, and has the technology of extracting and refining the elastin from the blood vessel of a swine. The manufactured elastin has so far been sold for cell culture research for a pharmaceutical company or research institutions mainly. Since the elastin is in cross linkage status in the living body and does not dissolve in water, it was hydrolyzed, and fractions were separated according to water solubility. When the character of each of this fraction was analyzed, functionality promising as cosmetics was discovered to the fraction of 10 kilodalton or less with the smallest molecular weight. It is said that this fraction showed the effect to promote elastin production in cultured human cells. Based on these results, production of human elastin was started in 2011. 20 ml cost 8500 Yen (~ 80 €)

ECM press release, March 12, 2012