Formation of cholesterol gallstones: the role of metabolic factors and of congestion.

Cholesterol gallstones were induced in mice by means of a lithogenous diet. Some of the animals were given in addition morphine regularly. The ten-week experiment was concluded with operation. Lithogenesis was recorded, the volume of the gallbladder was measured, the bile collected for analysis and a specimen was taken from the liver for histologic examination. In the animals fed the lithogenous diet were only gallstones found. The occurrence of cholestasis was unequivocally be proved by the volume of the gallbladder and the microscopic examination of the bile sediment in the group treated with morphine. Metabolic factors seem to play the primary role in the formation of cholesterol gallstones; cholestasis is of secondary importance.