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Bile Acid Synthesis in Humans¹

Division of Gastroenterology, Departments of Medicine and Surgery, Veterans Administration Medical Center [L. S.], and Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia 23249, and Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden

Metabolic pathways involved in the conversion of cholesterol to cholic and chenodeoxycholic acids have been investigated in bile fistula patients treated with a number of labeled potential bile acid intermediates. The findings of the present report indicate that the human liver cell has the capacity to synthesize both primary bile acids via multiple routes from cholesterol and 7-hydroxycholesterol. Evidence has been obtained for the existence of a major pathway to chenodeoxycholic acid via the 26-hydroxylation of 7-hydroxycholest-4-en-3-one. Cholic acid is synthesized preferentially via pathways from 5ß-cholestane, 3,7-diol and a pathway from cholesterol not involving an initial 7-hydroxylation.

¹ Presented at the Workshop on Fat and Cancer, December 10 to 12, 1979, Bethesda, Md. Supported in part by the Veterans Administration, National Institutes of Health Grants AM 14668 and 23028, and the Swedish Medical Research Council (Project 03X-218).

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.