Cholesterol, despite its poor solubility in aqueous solutions, exchanges efficiently between membranes. Movement of cholesterol between different subcellular membranes in the hepatocyte is necessary for assembly of lipoproteins, biliary cholesterol secretion, and bile acid synthesis. Factors which initiate and facilitate transfer of cholesterol between different membranes in the hepatocyte are ...

The molecular pathogenesis of cystic fibrosis (CF) liver disease is unknown. This study investigates its earliest pathophysiologic manifestations employing a mouse model carrying ∆F508, the commonest human CF mutation. We hypothesized that, if increased bile salt spillage into the colon occurs as in the human disease, this should lead to a hydrophobic bile salt profile and to “hyperbilirubinbil...

The objective of this study was to examine whether ion pair complexation with endogenous bile salts in hepatocytes contributes to the preferential biliary excretion of organic cations (OCs). Tributylmethylammonium (TBuMA; mol wt 200) and triethylmethylammonium (TEMA; mol wt 116) were selected as model OCs that exhibit significant and negligible biliary excretion, respectively, in rats. The appa...

The size and composition of the bile-salt pools in a group of diabetics with neuropathy but no diarrhoea and a group with "diabetic diarrhoea" were compared with those in a group of stable, uncomplicated diabetics. The diabetics with neuropathy had significantly more dihydroxy bile salts, a larger bile-salt pool, and a higher faecal excretion of bile than the controls. The diabetics with diarrh...

Under basal conditions, bile and bile salts applied intraduodenally influence plasma levels of several gastroenteropancreatic peptides. Besides those with stimulatory effects on exocrine pancreatic secretion, others with inhibitory or no effects are released as well. Furthermore, cholinergic and peptidergic neural mechanisms may also be activated. Secretin seems to be the most important mediato...

Bile salts function to emulsify lipids and fat solubles to form fat-containing micelles to ease absorption from the intestinal tract. However, in animals, including humans, the production and utilization of bile salts is very limited at birth and during early development stages. In humans, insufficient bile has been associated with lipid malabsorption in premature infants (Watkins et al., 1975)...

Bile salts have been shown to be involved in the etiology of colorectal cancer. Although there is a large body of evidence for bile salts as a cocarcinogen in azoxymethane-induced colorectal cancer, bile salt-induced apoptosis of colorectal cancer cells has not yet been studied in detail. Therefore, we investigated the effects of different bile salts on apoptosis and apoptotic signaling in colo...

Bile salts have been shown to be involved in the etiology of colorectal cancer. Although there is a large body of evidence for bile salts as a cocarcinogen in azoxymethane-induced colorectal cancer, bile salt-induced apoptosis of colorectal cancer cells has not yet been studied in detail. Therefore, we investigated the effects of different bile salts on apoptosis and apoptotic signaling in colo...

We examine the mechanism of formation of micelles of dihydroxy bile salts using a coarse-grained, implicit solvent model and Langevin dynamics simulations. We find that bile salt micelles primarily form via addition and removal of monomers, similarly to surfactants with typical head-tail molecular structures, and not via a two-stage mechanism - involving formation of oligomers and their subsequ...