AOD-9604 — wholesale 10-vial kits

Research context

AOD-9604 came out of structure–activity work at Monash University on the C-terminal end of human growth hormone and was developed by Metabolic Pharmaceuticals in Australia; the designation stands for "Advanced Obesity Drug". It is also indexed as LAT-8881. The parent fragment, hGH(176–191), had been reported to retain the hormone's lipolytic activity in rodent adipose tissue without its growth-promoting or insulin-like activity, and AOD-9604 is the stabilized analog of that region.

The modification is precise and worth getting right on a label: AOD-9604 is hGH(177–191) carrying an added N-terminal tyrosine, so the tyrosine occupies the position of the phenylalanine that begins the 176–191 fragment. The internal cysteines at the positions corresponding to hGH Cys182 and Cys189 form a disulfide, which closes the loop that gives the fragment its shape; reduction of that bond is one of the common lot-to-lot identity problems. The result is a 16-residue peptide that is often mislabelled in the trade as plain "fragment 176–191", which is a different molecule with a different mass.

At the cellular level the reported pharmacology is receptor-independent in an important sense. A 2001 study in the International Journal of Obesity reported that AOD-9604 did not compete with radiolabelled hGH for the growth hormone receptor in transfected BaF-B03 cells and did not induce proliferation in that system, while still increasing fat oxidation and plasma glycerol in obese and lean mice. A companion study in Endocrinology the same year used beta-3-adrenergic-receptor knock-out mice and found that chronic exposure failed to reproduce the body-composition and lipolysis changes seen in wild-type animals, although both hGH and AOD-9604 raised beta-3-AR transcript levels; the authors concluded the lipolytic action is not mediated directly through beta-3-AR but may act through increased receptor expression. Earlier work in obese Zucker rats, published in Hormone Research, characterized increased lipolytic activity in adipose tissue without the insulin-sensitivity changes seen with intact hGH under euglycaemic-clamp conditions.

For laboratories the compound is used as a reference lipolytic fragment: glycerol and non-esterified-fatty-acid release from isolated adipocytes or explants, lipogenesis assays, beta-adrenergic transcript and cAMP readouts, hGH-receptor binding and proliferation assays as a negative-control ligand, and LC-MS identity work where distinguishing the tyrosine-extended analog from the bare fragment is the whole exercise.

Regulatory position, stated factually: AOD-9604 is not FDA-approved, has never been marketed as a drug, and is not the active ingredient of any approved U.S. product. FDA lists AOD-9604 among bulk drug substances that were nominated for use in compounding and then withdrawn by the nominators. WholesalePeptide.us supplies AOD-9604 as a research reference standard for in-vitro, analytical and preclinical laboratory research.

Suppliers use "AOD-9604" and "fragment 176–191" loosely. The two differ by the extra tyrosine and therefore by mass. The LC-MS identity line on each lot COA states which molecule is in the vial, and the disulfide should be reported as intact.

Research areas

• adipocyte lipolysis and lipogenesis
• growth hormone C-terminal fragment structure–activity
• β3-adrenergic signaling in rodent adipose tissue
• GH-receptor-independent metabolic signaling
• isolated-adipocyte glycerol and NEFA release assays
• growth hormone receptor binding as a negative-control ligand

U.S. regulatory status of the compound (as an active ingredient): Not approved by the FDA. The material sold here is a research reference chemical, not a drug product.

Handling and storage

• Store lyophilized vials at −20 °C, sealed, protected from light and moisture.
• Let the vial equilibrate to room temperature before opening to limit condensation.
• Reconstitute in an appropriate sterile buffer or solvent according to your laboratory SOP.
• Aliquot reconstituted material and avoid repeated freeze–thaw.