Bile Salt Metabolism and Bile Formation in the Rat with a Portacaval Shunt

Abstract

Abstract. Biliary secretion of bile salts and bile flow were studied in Sprague Dawley rats with liver atrophy resulting from an end‐to‐side portacaval shunt and in sham‐operated controls. Three weeks after the shunt operation the liver to body weight ratio was reduced by 41%. This hepatic atrophy was accompanied by a reduced bile flow, which was 4.9 ± 0.3 (SEM) and 5.9 ± 0.2 (SEM) μ/min per 100 g body wt. in shunted and sham‐operated animals, respectively. By contrast, bile salt pool size and bile salt secretion were not significantly changed by the portacaval shunt. Shunted animals maintained a normal bile salt pool size by increasing bile salt synthesis per unit of liver weight. Thus, cholate synthesis, calculated from cholate pool size and 14C‐cholate turnover rate, was 3.3 ± 0.4 (SEM) and 1.8 ± 0.2 (SEM) μmol/24 h per g liver in shunted and sham‐operated rats, respectively. It is concluded that the atrophic liver in the rat with a portacaval shunt is able to maintain normal bile salt secretion rates and that the observed decrease of bile flow results from a diminution of bile salt independent bile formation.