[Metabolism of bile salts. 1. Control of synthesis (author's transl)].

Bile acids, which are essential to the digestion of fat, are synthetized in the liver from cholesterol, and changes in synthesis usually parallel changes in cholesterol synthesis. Mainly located in the gallbladder and intestine, they circulate several times a day between these two organs (enterohepatic circulation). The pool of bile salts remains constant, the amount synthetized daily being equal to those lost through the faeces. Bile acid synthesis is controlled by a feed-back mechanism represented by the amount of bile salts reaching the sinusoidal membranes of liver cells.