Liver - Bile salts

6 important questions on Liver - Bile salts

How to bile salts work?

1. Duodenal fat stimulates CCK release and relaxes gall bladder sphincter (sphincter of Oddi) and contracts the gall bladder
2. Bile acids emulsify lipids and turns them into smaller lipids by dissolving their fat soluble parts with the surface of the lipids and decreasing their surface tension
3. This allows for higher surface area, pancreatic lipase has an easier time breaking down triglycerides into FFAs and monoglycerides
4. Micelles form (hydrophillic parts outside, hydrophobic parts inside) to transport monoglycerides and FFAs to intestinal epithelial cell borders

What happens to micelles at the brush border of the intestinal epithelial cells?

1. Monoglycerides and FFAs are absorbed and enter bloodstream
2. Bile salts diffuse back into chyme to be used for transport again in the ileum

What happens to bile salts in anaerobic guts?

Anaerobic gut bacteria may deconjugate bile salts, making them difficult to reabsorb and leading them to be excreted
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What happens in overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine?

There will be more deconjugation of bile salts, leading to passing of bile salts to colon that stimulates water secretion into lumen and thus diarrhea

Where and how are bile salts recycled?

In the ileum: active Na+/bile acid symporter return >95% of bile to the liver via hepatic portal veins

When can bile salts not be reused?

When their taurine conjugation is no longer present, making them hydrophobic

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