Lipotropin
| Proopiomelanocortin derivatives | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POMC | |||||||||
| γ-MSH | ACTH | β-lipotropin | |||||||
| α-MSH | CLIP | γ-lipotropin | β-endorphin | ||||||
| β-MSH | |||||||||
Lipotropin is a hormone made by breaking down Proopiomelanocortin (POMC). The adenohypophysis produces the prohormone POMC, which is later split into adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and β-lipotropin (β-LPH).
β-lipotropin
β-lipotropin is a 90 amino acid long polypeptide that is formed from the C -terminal fragment of POMC. It stimulates the melanocytes to produce melanin and can itself be broken down into smaller peptides; in humans into γ-lipotropin, α-MSH, β-MSH, γ-MSH, α-endorphin, β-endorphin, γ-endorphin and met-enkephalin.
β-lipotropin also has lipid mobilizing functions such as lipolysis and steroidogenesis .
γ-lipotropin
γ-lipotropin is a peptide fragment of the N -terminus of β-lipotropin. In humans it consists of 56 amino acids.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Joachim Spiess, Charles D. Mount, Wendell E. Nicholson, David N. Orth: NH2-Terminal amino acid sequence and peptide mapping of purified human β-lipotropin: Comparison with previously proposed sequences. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. 1982, 79, pp. 5071-5075; PMC 346829 (free full text, PDF).