Comparative studies on the uptake of 14C-bile acids and 3H-demethylphalloin in isolated rat liver cells.

The inward transport of bile acids in isolated hepatocytes completes with the uptake of phallotoxins. Cholate, taurocholate and glycocholate added 30 s prior to phallotoxins reduce their uptake in a concentration dependent manner. 100 microM bile acids suppress the uptake of phallotoxins completely. Several compounds known to inhibit the bile acid transport reduce the phallotoxin uptake to similar degree. Hepatocytes exposed to reagents reacting preferentially with amino groups of proteins lose their up take of both bile acids and phallotoxins. In hepatocytes isolated from 5 day old rats the uptake of both phallotoxins and cholate is reduced as compared to cells from adult controls. AS-30D ascites hepatoma cells, known to be insensitive to phallotoxins are unable to take up both phallotoxins and cholate. The results are consistent with our working hypothesis of a very similar mechanism for the uptake of bile acids and phallotoxins.