Biliary reabsorption of cholate sodium, glycocholate sodium, and taurocholate sodium from the rat biliary tree after retrograde intrabiliary injection.

The results demonstrate the biliary reabsorption of 14C-cholate, 14C-glycocholate, and 14C-taurocholate from the rat biliary tree after retrograde intrabiliary injection. It could be shown that retrograde injection of these bile salts (20 nmol) in a total volume of 40 mul leads to significantly increased biliary reabsorption in contrast to the administration in a retrograde volume of only 20 mul. These differences in reabsorption may be explained by greater reabsorption at a more proximal site in the biliary tree. Furthermore 14C-glycocholate and 14C-taurocholate are reabsorbed to a lesser extent in contrast to 14C-cholate when bile flow was restarted at once after retrograde injection in a volume of 40 mul. It is speculated that conjugation of cholate to glycine and taurine has some effect on the extent of biliary reabsorption of this bile acid. Following the results presented in this paper one might hypothize that biliary reabsorption has an important influence on bile composition i.e. the biliary excretion of bile salts.