Lipo-B (MIC + B12)

Every ingredient plays a specific part in one-carbon and lipid metabolism. Methionine, an essential sulfur-containing amino acid, is the precursor of S-adenosylmethionine, the cell's main methyl donor. Choline, a quaternary ammonium compound, is needed to make phosphatidylcholine, which the liver requires to export triglycerides in very-low-density lipoproteins — choline deficiency is the textbook way to induce fatty liver in rodents. Inositol is a carbocyclic sugar forming the backbone of phosphatidylinositol and its phosphorylated signalling derivatives. Cyanocobalamin is the precursor of the cofactors used by methionine synthase and methylmalonyl-CoA mutase, tying B12 status directly to methylation capacity and propionate metabolism.

The choice of cyanocobalamin as the B12 form is deliberate. It is the most stable and least easily degraded cobalamin, yet it is not a cofactor in its own right: cells must strip off the cyano group and convert it to methylcobalamin or adenosylcobalamin before methionine synthase or methylmalonyl-CoA mutase can use it. If that conversion is the variable you are studying, our methylcobalamin listing makes the better comparator. “Lipotropic” goes back to mid-20th-century nutrition research on substances that changed fat build-up in the liver, which is where the three-part base originates. The same solution comes in two fills, 10 mL and 30 mL, stored cold and dark because the cobalamin that colours it is light-sensitive.