LIPO-C Fat Blaster

LIPO-C is a multi-component solution rather than a single compound, and none of its components is a peptide. The combination has not been studied as a formulation; what exists is separate biochemistry for each constituent.

• L-carnitine — required for the transfer of long-chain fatty acids across the inner mitochondrial membrane for β-oxidation. Cells accumulate and kidneys retain carnitine through OCTN2, a high-affinity organic cation transporter specific for it. Longo and colleagues give the current account of the carnitine shuttle.
• Methionine — an essential amino acid and the precursor of S-adenosylmethionine, the principal biological methyl donor. It sits directly upstream of the same one-carbon pool that choline feeds.
• Inositol — a cyclitol used in phosphatidylinositol synthesis and in the inositol-phosphate second-messenger system.
• Choline — required for phosphatidylcholine synthesis and therefore for hepatic VLDL secretion. Corbin and Zeisel document that humans deprived of dietary choline develop hepatosteatosis and liver damage, which is the mechanistic basis for calling choline lipotropic.
• Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) — cofactor for methionine synthase, which regenerates methionine from homocysteine. See the B12 entry.
• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) — cofactor for transaminases and for the transsulphuration enzymes that dispose of homocysteine.
• NADH — the reduced form of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, the electron carrier of the respiratory chain. See the NAD+ entry.

The methionine–inositol–choline group is conventionally abbreviated MIC. The shared thread across methionine, choline, B12 and B6 is one-carbon and methyl-group metabolism; carnitine and NADH sit on the fatty-acid-oxidation side.