Beta-lipotropin
The 89-residue piece released with ACTH, and what measuring it adds to a pituitary work-up
When the pituitary cuts pro-opiomelanocortin, it releases ACTH and beta-lipotropin together in equal amounts. Beta-lipotropin is itself a precursor, holding within it gamma-lipotropin, beta-MSH and beta-endorphin. Specific assays showed it is by far the most abundant of these peptides in blood, several times beta-endorphin, and that it clears more slowly than ACTH. Much of the old 'beta-endorphin' measured in exercise and stress studies was mostly this peptide. It is measured, never given.
No established human dose Details ↓
Recommended Dosing
No established human dose
Beta-lipotropin has not been given to people in any study on this page. Every human study measured it, in plasma or cerebrospinal fluid, either at rest or during a pituitary test, exercise, dialysis or surgery.
What is it?
Pro-opiomelanocortin is the pituitary's multi-purpose precursor. One cut splits it into ACTH and beta-lipotropin, so the two leave the gland together and in equal amounts. Beta-lipotropin is not an end product either: cut again it yields gamma-lipotropin, beta-MSH and, from its last 31 residues, beta-endorphin.
Its own biology is thin. The name comes from early reports of fat-mobilising activity, and the opioid effects of this part of the precursor belong to beta-endorphin rather than to the parent peptide. What beta-lipotropin does have is a long record as a marker. It appears in blood in parallel with ACTH, keeps the same daily rhythm with a morning peak, rises with corticotropin-releasing hormone, insulin-induced hypoglycaemia and metyrapone, and falls with dexamethasone.
Two measurements made it useful in the clinic of the 1970s and 1980s. First, it clears more slowly than ACTH, with a half-life of about 95 minutes against 40, so after cortisol is given the usual ratio between the two reverses. Second, pituitary and ectopic tumours process the precursor differently, and the ratio of ACTH to lipotropin and of gamma- to beta-lipotropin differed between them. Added to the metyrapone test it flagged ACTH deficiency in patients whose steroid response looked adequate, and during a dexamethasone infusion its pattern separated Cushing's disease, adrenal tumours and ectopic ACTH.
It also matters for reading the older literature. When monoclonal two-site assays finally measured the two peptides apart, beta-lipotropin in healthy people was several times beta-endorphin, and in patients with ACTH-related disease the ratio ran from three to thirty-eight to one. Studies that reported 'beta-endorphin' from a combined assay, including the exercise and stress work, were largely measuring beta-lipotropin. Both peptides also accumulate in kidney failure, so levels in dialysis patients are high.
Modern practice measures ACTH directly, and beta-lipotropin is no longer a routine test. It remains of interest as the dominant circulating product of this part of the precursor, and in one small study spinal-fluid levels before surgery tracked how much pain patients reported afterwards.
Mechanism of Action
Beta-lipotropin is a processing intermediate: released with ACTH, it is itself cut into gamma-lipotropin, beta-MSH and beta-endorphin, which carry the activity attributed to this end of the precursor.
One cut, two peptides
Pro-opiomelanocortin is split into ACTH and beta-lipotropin, which are secreted together in equal amounts.
A precursor in turn
Further cleavage yields gamma-lipotropin, beta-MSH and beta-endorphin; the opioid activity belongs to beta-endorphin.
Slower clearance
Its half-life of about 95 minutes, against 40 for ACTH, is why their ratio shifts after cortisol is given.
A corticotroph marker
Levels follow ACTH through the day and through CRH, hypoglycaemia, metyrapone and dexamethasone testing.
Published Research
These are human studies of beta-lipotropin read from their PubMed abstracts: its clearance and the pituitary-versus-ectopic ratio, its daily rhythm, assay studies that measured it apart from beta-endorphin, its behaviour in pituitary function tests and in Cushing's syndrome, and measurements in exercise, kidney failure, menopause and after surgery. It is measured in every one; none gave it.
Clears more slowly than ACTH, and tells pituitary from ectopic disease
In patients with raised hormone levels from a pituitary or an ectopic source, ACTH exceeded lipotropin when the source was the pituitary and the ratio reversed when it was ectopic. After hydrocortisone was given to seven patients, immunoreactive ACTH fell with a half-life of about 40 minutes and lipotropin about 95 minutes, reversing their usual ratio. Two antisera showed that ectopic sources made relatively less gamma-lipotropin than the pituitary, which the authors proposed as a diagnostic aid.
A daily rhythm that follows ACTH
Plasma immunoreactive lipotropin in people had a clear daily rhythm, lowest between 10 pm and 3 am and highest between 7 and 8 am, just after waking. Its level tracked ACTH closely at every time point and showed no relation to growth hormone or to the stage of sleep.
Measuring three POMC peptides in the same sample
Using sequential immunoaffinity chromatography, basal morning plasma held about 6.1 fmol/ml beta-lipotropin, 4.4 fmol/ml gamma-lipotropin and 11.1 fmol/ml ACTH, with beta-endorphin undetectable in 7 of 19 samples. Insulin-induced hypoglycaemia and vasopressin raised ACTH and beta-lipotropin by nearly equal amounts.
Higher with body weight in hirsute women
In eight hirsute women with high androgens and irregular periods, plasma beta-endorphin and beta-lipotropin were higher than in non-obese controls and rose with body weight. The authors suggested a link between these peptides, obesity and adrenal androgen output.
Both lipotropins build up in kidney failure
With chromatography and specific assays, patients on long-term haemodialysis had much higher gamma-lipotropin and combined beta-endorphin and beta-lipotropin immunoreactivity than healthy subjects, and their signal eluted as beta-lipotropin with no separate beta-endorphin peak. In patients with ACTH and lipotropin oversecretion, two peaks appeared. The authors suggested the kidney matters for clearing these peptides.
Running raises it two to fivefold
Six trained endurance runners did 30-minute treadmill runs at a self-chosen pace, at 60% and at 80% of maximum oxygen uptake, plus a rest control, in random order. Combined beta-endorphin and beta-lipotropin immunoreactivity rose two to fivefold after each run, reaching significance only after the 60% run, with wide variation between runners and no relation to mood or perceived effort.
CRF releases it with ACTH in equal amounts
Six healthy men given 100 micrograms of CRF-41 showed a prompt rise in lipotropin immunoreactivity alongside ACTH. Chromatography of the basal and 15-minute peak samples showed beta-lipotropin and beta-endorphin rising in equal molar amounts, consistent with parallel release of all three peptides from their common precursor.
Adds information to the metyrapone test
In 36 patients with pituitary disease, both 11-deoxycortisol and beta-lipotropin rose normally after metyrapone in 28; in the other eight the beta-lipotropin response was absent although 11-deoxycortisol rose, and seven of those eight also failed the insulin hypoglycaemia test, supporting ACTH deficiency. In eight patients with Cushing's syndrome the beta-lipotropin pattern separated adrenal adenoma, ectopic ACTH and Cushing's disease.
Separates Cushing's syndrome from obesity
During a four-hour intravenous dexamethasone infusion, beta-lipotropin and cortisol fell sharply in nine healthy and twelve obese subjects and stayed low overnight. In seven patients with Cushing's disease both fell by more than half during the infusion but escaped suppression by the evening, while patients with adrenal tumours had low beta-lipotropin throughout and one with ectopic ACTH had high, unsuppressed levels.
Rises with hormone replacement after menopause
In postmenopausal women given conjugated oestrogens or a synthetic steroid, plasma beta-endorphin and beta-lipotropin were above baseline after two months, with the synthetic steroid raising them more; placebo did not. Both treatments reduced hot flushes and improved symptom scores, with no further change by four months.
Moves with ACTH through four pituitary tests
In 27 healthy subjects, plasma ACTH and beta-lipotropin correlated under basal conditions and after dexamethasone, CRH, insulin hypoglycaemia and metyrapone. The rise after CRH was smaller than after hypoglycaemia, and metyrapone produced the largest rise of all; the ratio between the two peptides differed with metyrapone, which the authors read as separate stores within corticotrophs.
Discordant with ACTH in depressed Cushing's patients
In eleven patients with Cushing's disease, changes in ACTH and in combined beta-lipotropin and beta-endorphin moved together in six mildly depressed patients but diverged in the five who were severely depressed, across baseline sampling and after metyrapone and dexamethasone. Concordant patterns averaged 90% per patient in the mild group against 35% in the severe group.
The main POMC C-terminal peptide in human plasma
Two-site assays built from monoclonal antibodies measured beta-endorphin and beta-lipotropin separately, with less than 0.02% cross-reaction. In 18 healthy subjects beta-endorphin was at or below 1.7 pmol/l while beta-lipotropin was 2.5 to 6.7 pmol/l in the morning. Across patients with ACTH-related disease the ratio of beta-lipotropin to beta-endorphin ranged from 3:1 to 38:1, so beta-lipotropin is the dominant circulating form; during petrosal sinus sampling with CRH, beta-endorphin rose fast and the ratio fell.
Spinal fluid levels and pain after surgery
In 17 patients having hip or knee replacement, beta-lipotropin and N-acetyl-beta-endorphin immunoreactivity in cerebrospinal fluid rose after propofol was stopped while spinal anaesthesia still held. Pain scores during recovery correlated inversely with spinal-fluid beta-lipotropin at every sampling time, while ACTH and authentic beta-endorphin showed no such relation.
No Established Human Dose
Beta-lipotropin has not been given to people in any study on this page. Every human study measured it, in plasma or cerebrospinal fluid, either at rest or during a pituitary test, exercise, dialysis or surgery. There is no beta-lipotropin preparation to give and no dose to state.
What this rests on: PMID 192408, PMID 8287571, PMID 6328343.
Educational information, not medical advice. The doses on this page come from approved labels, published studies and, where no study exists, amounts reported by users. None is a recommendation for you. An unapproved compound has no established safe or effective human dose, and products sold for “research use only” are not made or tested for people. Talk to a doctor before acting on anything on this site, including before you start, stop or change any medicine or dose. Full medical disclaimer.
What a Buyer Needs to Know
What is sold, how it is mixed, stored and taken, and what is known about its safety, quality and legal status. Each part names its source. Where we have none, it says unknown.
What is sold
Unknown: we hold no label and no published test that says what forms or vial sizes Beta-lipotropin is sold in. A vial's own label is a seller's claim, not a source.
Mixing a vial: a worked example
Unknown: no human dose of Beta-lipotropin has been established (see No Established Human Dose below), so there is no amount to work out. The reconstitution calculator does the arithmetic for any vial, water and dose.
Storage before and after mixing
Unknown: no label or published stability study on file says how to store Beta-lipotropin, before or after mixing. The mixing guide sets out the general rules, with their sources: keep a mixed vial in the fridge, and use it promptly, as the bacteriostatic water label says of any drug dissolved in it. The 28 days often quoted is the limit for an opened multiple-dose vial from a manufacturer, an outer limit set for sterility, not a time a mixed solution has been shown to keep. Nobody has published how long Beta-lipotropin stays intact once mixed.
How it is taken
Unknown: with no established human dose, there is no established way of taking Beta-lipotropin. What the human studies gave and how is set out under No Established Human Dose.
What to expect, and when
How long it stays in the body: a half-life of about 95 minutes, against 40 minutes for ACTH in the same patients. After about five half-lives almost none is left.
When effects appear: unknown; no source on this page gives a time to effect for Beta-lipotropin. Results reported in the studies are under Published Research.
Source: half-life: PMID 192408.
Side effects, and when to stop or get help
From the Side Effects section: Older assays could not separate it from beta-endorphin, so reported 'beta-endorphin' levels in those studies were mostly beta-lipotropin (PMID 8287571); Levels build up in kidney failure, so dialysis patients have high values without pituitary disease (PMID 6256410); Values follow the time of day and rise with exercise and with stimulation tests (PMIDs 229998, 7096149). Full list and cautions ↓
When to stop or get help: unknown; no label or trial on file sets rules for stopping Beta-lipotropin. Treat a severe or unexpected reaction as a reason to stop and see a doctor.
Source: the Side Effects section below (“Beta-lipotropin is measured, not given, so it has no side effects of its own”).
Interactions
Unknown: a PubMed search for human interaction studies of Beta-lipotropin (reviewed 2026-10-30) found none. Unknown is not the same as safe to combine.
Every peptide's record, with its source: the interaction matrix.
Checking what you bought
Unknown: no published independent test of Beta-lipotropin products is in our lab-results database yet, so how products sold under this name measure up is not known.
To read a certificate of analysis, paste it into the COA decoder; it checks the measured mass against Beta-lipotropin's expected mass, 9,806.0 Da, from this entry's molecular data. Trust & Verification explains what independent testing can and cannot show.
Legal status
US: Research Chemical (Not a medicine: beta-lipotropin is measured in plasma and spinal fluid by immunoassay and has not been approved or given as a drug in the sources read). Sport: Not on the 2026 List.
Country by country ↓ · Regulatory tracker
Source: this entry's approval status and the WADA Prohibited List, as in Legal Status below.
Side Effects & Contraindications
Reported Side Effects
Beta-lipotropin is measured, not given, so it has no side effects of its own. These notes concern reading the measurement.
Contraindications & Cautions
There is nothing to take. These cautions follow from the evidence.
Legal Status
Beta-lipotropin is a pituitary peptide measured in blood; it is not approved as a medicine anywhere in the sources read.
Frequently Asked Questions
?What is beta-lipotropin?
An 89-amino-acid peptide the pituitary releases with ACTH, cut from the same precursor. It is itself cut further into gamma-lipotropin, beta-MSH and beta-endorphin.
?Does it act like an opioid?
The opioid activity of this part of the precursor belongs to beta-endorphin, the last 31 residues. No opioid action of the parent peptide is established in the studies read.
?Why does it matter for old beta-endorphin studies?
Because the assays of the time measured both together. When antibodies finally separated them, beta-lipotropin was several times more abundant in plasma, so much of what was reported as beta-endorphin was this peptide.
?Was it used as a clinical test?
Yes, in the 1970s and 1980s. It added information to the metyrapone test for ACTH deficiency, and its pattern during a dexamethasone infusion helped separate causes of Cushing's syndrome.
?Why is its level high in dialysis patients?
Both beta-lipotropin and gamma-lipotropin accumulate in chronic kidney failure, which suggested the kidney has a part in clearing them.
?Does exercise raise it?
In trained runners a 30-minute run raised combined beta-endorphin and beta-lipotropin immunoreactivity two to fivefold, with wide variation and no link to mood scores.
?Can you take beta-lipotropin?
No. It has not been given to people in the studies read and no product exists.
References
- [other] UniProt P01189 (POMC_HUMAN): lipotropin beta = residues 179-267, lipotropin gamma = 179-234, beta-endorphin = 237-267; read October 30, 2026. Formula and mass computed from the 89-residue sequence with no disulfide bond. https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/P01189/entry
- [clinical-trial] Gilkes JJ, et al. "Plasma immunoreactive corticotrophin and lipotrophin in Cushing's syndrome and Addison's disease." Br Med J, 1977;1(6067):996-8. PMID: 192408.
- [pubmed] Mullen PE, et al. "The circadian variation of immunoreactive lipotrophin and its relationship to ACTH and growth hormone in man." Clin Endocrinol (Oxf), 1979;11(5):533-9. PMID: 229998.
- [pubmed] Yamaguchi H, et al. "Simultaneous determination of human plasma immunoreactive beta-lipotropin, gamma-lipotropin, and beta-endorphin using immuno-affinity chromatography." J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 1980;51(5):1002-8. PMID: 6252227.
- [pubmed] Givens JR, et al. "beta-Endorphin and beta-lipotropin plasma levels in hirsute women: correlation with body weight." J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 1980;50(5):975-6. PMID: 6445374.
- [pubmed] Bertagna XY, et al. "Simultaneous assay of immunoreactive beta-lipotropin, gamma-lipotropin, and beta-endorphin in plasma of normal human subjects, patients with ACTH/lipotropin hypersecretory syndromes, and patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis." J Clin Invest, 1981;67(1):124-33. PMID: 6256410.
- [clinical-trial] Farrell PA, et al. "Increases in plasma beta-endorphin/beta-lipotropin immunoreactivity after treadmill running in humans." J Appl Physiol Respir Environ Exerc Physiol, 1982;52(5):1245-9. PMID: 7096149.
- [pubmed] McLoughlin L, et al. "CRF-41 stimulates the release of beta-lipotrophin and beta-endorphin in normal human subjects." Neuroendocrinology, 1984;38(4):282-4. PMID: 6328343.
- [pubmed] Abou-Samra AB, et al. "The value of beta-lipotrophin measurement during the short metyrapone test in patients with pituitary diseases and in Cushing's syndrome." Acta Endocrinol (Copenh), 1984;105(4):441-8. PMID: 6326444.
- [pubmed] Abou Samra AB, et al. "Beta-lipotropin and cortisol responses to an intravenous infusion dexamethasone suppression test in Cushing's syndrome and obesity." J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 1985;61(1):116-9. PMID: 3998073.
- [clinical-trial] Genazzani AR, et al. "Steroid replacement treatment increases beta-endorphin and beta-lipotropin plasma levels in postmenopausal women." Gynecol Obstet Invest, 1988;26(2):153-9. PMID: 2851506.
- [pubmed] Castro M, et al. "Beta-lipotropin/adrenocorticotropic hormone responses to corticotropin releasing hormone, hypoglycemia, metyrapone and dexamethasone in normal human subjects." Braz J Med Biol Res, 1990;23(11):1107-15. PMID: 1966779.
- [pubmed] Starkman MN, et al. "Discordant changes in plasma ACTH and beta-lipotropin/beta-endorphin levels in Cushing's disease patients with depression." Psychoneuroendocrinology, 1992;17(6):619-26. PMID: 1337606.
- [pubmed] Gibson S, et al. "Discrimination between beta-endorphin and beta-lipotrophin in human plasma using two-site immunoradiometric assays." Clin Endocrinol (Oxf), 1993;39(4):445-53. PMID: 8287571.
- [pubmed] Matejec R, et al. "Preoperative concentration of beta-lipotropin immunoreactive material in cerebrospinal fluid: a predictor of postoperative pain?." Neuropeptides, 2006;40(1):11-21. PMID: 16289330.
Sources & Citations
Every study on this page was read from its PubMed record on October 30, 2026. Status comes from Drugs@FDA (openFDA), read the same day. Grey Peptides sells nothing and links to no vendor.
Medical Disclaimer: This content is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, and nothing here is an instruction to obtain or use any compound. Talk to a licensed clinician about your own situation.