Effects of individual taurine-conjugated bile acids on biliary lipid secretion and sucrose clearance in the unanesthetized dog.

The effect of three taurine-conjugated bile acids on bile flow, induced biliary secretion of phospholipids and cholesterol, and the hepatobiliary clearance from plasma of sucrose and erythritol (two uncharged, nonmetabolizable permeability probe molecules) was assessed in the unanesthetized bile fistula dog under steady-state conditions. Synthetically prepared chenodeoxycholyltaurine, cholytaurine, or urological rate for randomized 90-min periods, and four 10-min samples of bile were taken at the end of each period. Induced bile flow (per mumoles of bile acid) was calculated to be about one-third higher with ursodeoxycholyltaurine than with the other bile acids. Induced phospholipid secretion was identical for all bile acids, but cholesterol secretion differed: the two dihydroxy taurine conjugates induced considerably more cholesterol per molecule bile acid or phospholipid than colyltaurine. Further, ursodeoxycholyltaurine induced significantly more cholesterol secretion than chenodeoxycholyltaurine. Erythritol clearances were identical for all bile acids, and sucrose clearance, although slightly higher for chenodeoxycholyltaurine than ursodeoxycholyltaurine, was similar for all three conjugated bile acids. The results indicate that, for these two 3,7-dihydroxy bile acids, the orientation of the 7-hydroxyl group on the steroid nucleus has a marked influence on cholesterol secretion into bile and bile flow but not on the apparent permeability of the hepatobiliary tree.