Bile acid homeostasis is tightly maintained through interactions between the liver, intestine, and kidney. During cholestasis, the liver is incapable of properly clearing bile acids from the circulation, and alternative excretory pathways are utilized. In obstructive cholestasis, urinary elimination is often increased, and this pathway is further enhanced after bile duct ligation in mice that a...

Physiological factors affecting the flow and composition of bile may be divided into two general categories. First, the availability of bile salts (by hepatic synthesis and by reabsorption from the bowel) has a significant influence on the rate of bile production. The choleretic effect of natural bile salts and the phenomenon of enterohepatic circulation of these compounds were first demonstrat...

The classical functions of bile acids include acting as detergents to facilitate the digestion and absorption of nutrients in the gut. In addition, bile acids also act as signaling molecules to regulate glucose homeostasis, lipid metabolism and energy expenditure. The signaling potential of bile acids in compartments such as the systemic circulation is regulated in part by an efficient enterohe...

Background: It has been reported that several species of Helicobacter colonize the biliary tract of animals and human, but their participation in hepatobiliary diseases are not established. This study is undertaken to determine if Helicobacter genus members, especially with regard to H. pylori, could be detected in the bile and gallbladder diseases. Methods: Thirty-eight gallbladder tissues and...

Bile acids make up a group of sterol-derived compounds that act as detergents in the intestine to facilitate the digestion and absorption of fats and fat-soluble molecules. In mammalian species, the cholesterol side chain is trimmed to yield C24-sterol derivatives. In other vertebrate species, the hydroxylation of the side chain does not lead to its removal and the products of the biosynthetic ...

Bile possesses antibacterial activity because bile salts disrupt membranes, denature proteins, and damage DNA. This study describes mechanisms employed by the bacterium Salmonella enterica to survive bile. Sublethal concentrations of the bile salt sodium deoxycholate (DOC) adapt Salmonella to survive lethal concentrations of bile. Adaptation seems to be associated to multiple changes in gene ex...

Bile salts and phospholipids are both required to solubilize biliary cholesterol. Since interruption of the enterohepatic circulation (EHC) depletes bile of bile salts, we have examined in the rhesus monkey the effects of controlled interruption of the EHC on biliary secretion of bile salt, phospholipid, and cholesterol and on the relative proportions of these components in bile. Immediately af...

We investigated the effect of ileal bile acid transport on the regulation of classic and alternative bile acid synthesis in cholesterol-fed rats and rabbits. Bile acid pool sizes, fecal bile acid outputs (synthesis rates), and the activities of cholesterol 7alpha-hydroxylase (classic bile acid synthesis) and cholesterol 27-hydroxylase (alternative bile acid synthesis) were related to ileal bile...

mediciNe & HealtH/RHode iSlaNd the long-term objeCtIve of our reSearCh program is to understand how bile acid homeostasis is regulated in physiological as well as pathological conditions, with a focus on the transcriptional regulation of the bile salt export pump (BSEP). As one of the major constituents of bile, bile acids were once considered bodily waste with no useful functions. Now it is we...

Mutations in ATP8B1, a broadly expressed P-type ATPase, result, through unknown mechanisms, in disorders of bile secretion. These disorders vary in severity from mild and episodic to progressive with liver failure. We generated Atp8b1G308V/G308V mutant mice, which carry a mutation orthologous to that present in homozygous form in patients from the Amish index kindred for severe ATP8B1 disease. ...