Current location - Recipe Complete Network - Healthy recipes - Enterohepatic circulation and physiologic significance of bile acids
Enterohepatic circulation and physiologic significance of bile acids

Most of the bile acids entering the intestine with bile can be reabsorbed back to the liver through the portal vein, and then excreted into the intestinal lumen with bile after being transformed by the liver, along with the newly synthesized combined bile acids in the liver; this process is the enterohepatic cycle of bile acids.

Significance: The bile acid synthesized by the liver cannot meet the physiological needs of the body, and the cycle is carried out 6 to 12 times a day, so that the limited bile acid in the body can give full play to its role.

Bile acids are important components of bile and play an important role in fat metabolism. Bile acids are mainly found in the enterohepatic circulatory system and play a protective role through recirculation. Only a small proportion of bile acids enter the peripheral circulation.

The driving forces for the enterohepatic circulation of bile acids are the hepatocyte transport system -- absorption of bile acids and their secretion into the bile, cholecystokinin-induced contraction of the gallbladder, propulsive peristalsis of the small bowel, active transport by the ileocecal mucosa, and inflow of blood into the portal vein.

Extended information:

In the intestinal tract, the various forms of bile acids fully exert their respective physiological functions and again determine their own fate. Upper intestinal bile acids are associated with the digestion and absorption of lipids.

The bile acids in the lower part of the intestine change themselves: they are transformed under the action of intestinal bacteria, and most of them are reabsorbed in the intestinal mucosa in their original or transformed form, according to the mechanism of active or passive transport. Only a small portion is excreted with food residues.

Active transport of bile acids to the bile promotes the elimination of water and solutes. The secretion of cholesterol and lecithin is largely dependent on the secretion of bile acids. Bile acids and lecithin are important in maintaining cholesterol levels in bile.

Disruption of the enterohepatic circulation may cause a decrease in the bile bile acid/cholesterol and lecithin/cholesterol ratios. At this point the bile is supersaturated with cholesterol. Cholesterol solubility and cholesterol gallstone formation are closely related to the size of the circulating bile acid pool.