Altered bile acid metabolism in vegetarians.

Bile acid kinetics were studied in a group of healthy vegetarians and a matched group of healthy control subjects. The daily fractional turnover rate of cholic acid was significantly smaller in the vegetarians than in the controls and deoxycholic acid pool size was significantly smaller in the vegetarians than in the controls. The data suggest that enterohepatic conservation of cholic acid is more efficient in vegetarians than in control subjects resulting in decreased deoxycholic acid input in vegetarian subjects. The possible significance of these data to intestinal oncogenesis is discussed.