The effect of dietary cholesterol on the composition of human bile
DenBesten, L.; Connor, W.E.; Bell, S.
Surgery 73(2): 266-273
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0039-6060 PMID: 4684835 Document Number: 67820
Ten healthy men 28 to 45 years old took a cholesterol-free diet or a diet with 750 mg cholesterol in successive 3-week periods. In another experiment the subject was a type II hypercholesterolaemic patient, who also had normal gall bladder function; she was given daily diets containing none, 100, 750, 1000 or 2000 mg cholesterol. In both experiments duodenal bile was examined on days 20 and 21 of each period. In the 3rd experiment the total bile volume and constituents were estimated over 24 h in 3 patients after cholecystectomy and choledochostomy for choledocholithiasis. With the diet containing 750 mg cholesterol the molar concentration of cholesterol lipid of duodenal bile increased from 8.05 to 10.88%. Phospholipid increased also from 24.16 to 30.35%, whereas bile acid fell from 68.32 to 58.7%. After cholesterol feeding the cholesterol:phospholipid and bile acid ratios suggested that the high-cholesterol diet produced a lithogenic bile. The diet with 1000 mg cholesterol gave bile supersaturated with cholesterol after 3 months; that with 2000 mg cholesterol resulted in supersaturation after 3 weeks. Serum cholesterol increased correspondingly. In all subjects in the 3rd experiment total bil volume, cholesterol, phospholipid and bile acid increased after cholesterol feeding. The increase in cholesterol output, 34.3%, and bile volume, 38.6%, exceeded that of phospholipid, 29.6%, and bile acid, 20.6%.