Research
MOTS-c
A 16-amino-acid peptide encoded not in the cell nucleus but in mitochondrial DNA — one of a small group of mitochondrial-derived peptides.
Available in the catalogue
Supplied as research material. Sizes and pricing are on the product page. Availability is not a statement about what a compound does.
What is being investigated
Directions the published work points at, and how far each has actually got. These are open questions, not established effects: most of what looks promising in cells does not replicate in animals, and most of what works in animals does not work in people. Nothing here is a claim about what this compound does for anyone.
- Insulin resistance and diet-induced obesity
The founding work: mice on a high-fat diet did not gain weight or become insulin resistant, with AMPK activation as the proposed route. Mouse, and the effect has not been tested in a person.
Animal studies
- Exercise capacity and muscle metabolism
Circulating levels of the peptide rise with exercise, which is what prompted animal work asking whether supplying it reproduces any part of what exercise does.
Animal studies
- Mitochondrial-derived peptides as a signalling class
The wider reason the discovery mattered. Whether the mitochondrial genome routinely encodes molecules that signal to the nucleus is a question about cell biology rather than about this peptide.
Cell and tissue studies
- Ageing and metabolic decline in humans
Observational work reports that plasma levels fall with age and differ between metabolic states. An association, which says nothing about whether the peptide causes anything.
Proposed from mechanism
Published research
Every reference below was checked against the published record before being listed, with the model each study used.
- Lee et al. (2015)Cell Metabolism · 21(3):443–54
Reported that the peptide activates AMPK signalling and prevents high-fat-diet-induced weight gain and insulin resistance.
mouse and HEK293 cells Source
Further reading
Longer articles on handling, analysis and what the published work reports.
- MOTS-c: what the research says
A peptide encoded in mitochondrial rather than nuclear DNA, whose discovery mattered more than the molecule. The founding mouse work, and the ten years since.
- How to store research peptides
Lyophilised peptides at -20°C, reconstituted at 2–8°C, ambient in transit. Why the dry cake tolerates shipping, and what actually degrades a vial.
- Peptide shelf life and stability
How long lyophilised and reconstituted peptides keep, and the four things that shorten it: temperature, moisture, light and oxidation. Storage figures included.
- How to reconstitute lyophilised peptides
How to reconstitute a lyophilised peptide with bacteriostatic water without damaging it: why you run the liquid down the vial wall and never shake it.