Five patients fitted with a biliary T-tube after cholecystectomy were given orally a tracer dose of [14C]hyodeoxycholic acid and 500 mg of the same unlabeled acid. Intestinal absorption and biotransformation, liver metabolism, bile secretion, fecal and urinary excretions of this acid or of its metabolites were studied. Hyodeoxycholic acid was well absorbed by the human intestine. It was not sub...

The activity of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA (HMG-CoA) reductase and 7alpha-hydroxylase, the enzymes controlling the rate of hepatic synthesis, respectively, of cholesterol and bile acids, and the microsomal cholesterol content were evaluated in 25 patients with cholesterol gallstones and 17 subjects without gallstones. The same quantities were estimated in 16 additional patients with gallsto...

Bile acid CoA synthetase has been discovered in rat kidney. Incubation of kidney microsomes with [14C]chenodeoxycholic acid and CoA produced a single peak with the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) retention time of CDC-CoA. This peak, when incubated with purified bile acid CoA: amino acid N-acyltransferase (BAT) from human liver and either taurine or glycine, led to the formation o...

Bile acids are important endocrine signalling molecules, modulating glucose homeostasis through activation of cell surface and nuclear receptors. Bile acid metabolism is altered in type 2 diabetes mellitus; however, whether this is of pathogenic consequence is not fully established. In this study urinary bile acid excretion in individuals with type 2 diabetes and matched healthy volunteers was ...

In patients with cholesterol gallstones, there is a diminished bile acid pool and the bile becomes supersaturated with cholesterol. Medical treatment has been aimed at re-expanding the pool to improve cholesterol solubility in bile but as yet the factors controlling the size of the bile acid pool' are unknown. Therefore the role of the liver and intestine in controlling bile acid pool size in t...

Bile acids concentration in liver is tightly regulated to prevent cell damage. Previous studies have demonstrated that deregulation of bile acid homeostasis can lead to cholestatic liver disease. Recently, we have shown that ER-bound transcription factor Crebh is a downstream effector of hepatic Cb1r signaling pathway. In this study, we have investigated the effect of alcohol exposure on hepati...

The scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI), which is expressed in the liver and intestine, plays a critical role in cholesterol metabolism in rodents. While hepatic SR-BI expression controls high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol metabolism, intestinal SR-BI has been proposed to facilitate cholesterol absorption. To evaluate further the relevance of SR-BI in the enterohepatic circulation...

Fenofibrate belongs to the group of hypolipidemic fibrates that act as activators of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-α (PPARα), which is a regulator of bile acid synthesis, metabolism, and transport. The present study aimed at evaluating the effects of fenofibrate on the circulating bile acid profile in humans. A study population of 200 healthy individuals comprising both genders...

It has been previously demonstrated that, in the rat, the major metabolic pathway of cholesterol involves the conversion of this molecule to bile acids (1, 2). These are excreted into bile and after repeated enterohepatic circulation (3) are finally eliminated in the feces, still in the form of bile acids. Over 80 per cent of the body's cholesterol was found to be metabolized in this manner (1,...