Key discoveries in bile acid chemistry and biology and their clinical applications: history of the last eight decades.

During the last 80 years there have been extraordinary advances in our knowledge of the chemistry and biology of bile acids. We present here a brief history of the major achievements as we perceive them. Bernal, a physicist, determined the X-ray structure of cholesterol crystals, and his data together with the vast chemical studies of Wieland and Windaus enabled the correct structure of the steroid nucleus to be deduced. Today, C24 and C27 bile acids together with C27 bile alcohols constitute most of the bile acid "family". Patterns of bile acid hydroxylation and conjugation are summarized. Bile acid measurement encompasses the techniques of GC, HPLC, and MS, as well as enzymatic, bioluminescent, and competitive binding methods. The enterohepatic circulation of bile acids results from vectorial transport of bile acids by the ileal enterocyte and hepatocyte; the key transporters have been cloned. Bile acids are amphipathic, self-associate in solution, and form mixed micelles with polar lipids, phosphatidylcholine in bile, and fatty acids in intestinal content during triglyceride digestion. The rise and decline of dissolution of cholesterol gallstones by the ingestion of 3,7-dihydroxy bile acids is chronicled. Scientists from throughout the world have contributed to these achievements.

Fifty years with bile acids and steroids in health and disease.

Cholesterol and its metabolites, e.g., steroid hormones and bile acids, constitute a class of compounds of great biological importance. Their chemistry, biochemistry, and regulation in the body have been intensely studied for more than two centuries. The author has studied aspects of the biochemistry and clinical chemistry of steroids and bile acids for more than 50 years, and this paper, which is an extended version of the Schroepfer Medal Award lecture, reviews and discusses part of this work. Development and application of analytical methods based on chromatography and mass spectrometry (MS) have been a central part of many projects, aiming at detailed characterization and quantification of metabolic profiles of steroids and bile acids under different conditions. In present terminology, much of the work may be termed steroidomics and cholanoidomics. Topics discussed are bile acids in human bile and feces, bile acid production, bacterial dehydroxylation of bile acids and steroids during the enterohepatic circulation, profiles of steroid sulfates in plasma of humans and other primates, development of neutral and ion-exchanging lipophilic derivatives of Sephadex for sample preparation and group separation of steroid and bile acid conjugates, profiles of steroids and bile acids in human urine under different conditions, hydroxylation of bile acids in liver disease, effects of alcohol-induced redox changes on steroid synthesis and metabolism, alcohol-induced changes of bile acid biosynthesis, compartmentation of bile acid synthesis studied with 3H-labeled ethanol, formation and metabolism of sulfated metabolites of progesterone in human pregnancy, abnormal patterns of these in patients with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy corrected by ursodeoxycholic acid, inherited and acquired defects of bile acid biosynthesis and their treatment, conjugation of bile acids and steroids with N-acetylglucosamine, sulfate-glucuronide double conjugates of hydroxycholesterols, extrahepatic 7alpha-hydroxylation and 3-dehydrogenation of hydroxycholesterols, and extrahepatic formation of C27 bile acids. The final part discusses analysis of free and sulfated steroids in brain tissue by capillary liquid chromatography-electrospray MS and suggests a need for reevaluation of the function of steroid sulfates in rat brain.

Physicochemical properties of bile acids and their relationship to biological properties: an overview of the problem.

The structure of the bile acid molecule is described and correlated with physiochemical properties of bile acids such as solubility, ionization, and micelle formation. Recent measurements of the critical micellar concentration (CMC) of a large number of bile acids indicate that the CMC is influenced by both side chain and nuclear structure. Bile acids with hydroxy substituents on both sides of the steroid nucleus are non-amphipathic and do not form micelles, and decreasing the length of the side chain causes an exponential increase in the CMC. Bile acid ionization, measured by titration in alcohol-water mixtures, is shown to be uninfluenced by nuclear substituents; the pKa of all unconjugated bile acids is about 5. Interactions of bile acid solutions with Ca2+ are discussed; recent work indicates that cholyl conjugates bind Ca2+ as monomers in solution. Model systems relevant to biological processes are classified, as are some of the physicochemical parameters of these systems. Biological processes involving bile acids are tabulated, and corresponding model systems are assigned to each. Some biological processes such as bile acid transport show marked species differences, suggesting that physicochemical parameters are insufficient to explain biological differences. It is recommended that the physical chemist study a variety of bile acids, that the biologist study a variety of species, and that both collaborate to attempt to factor out the extent to which physicochemical properties of bile acids can explain their biological properties.