title: In vivo and in vitro relationship between lipoprotein-X and bile salts in cholestasis.
abstract: Bile salts have been shown to act on lipoprotein-X (LP-X) in vitro to induce a false-negative electrophoretic test. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between serum LP-X and serum bile acids in patients with cholestasis. The in vitro concentration of bile salts required to induce a negative or reduced concentration of LP-X was also studied. There was no relationship, either positive or negative, between serum LP-X and bile acids in 34 patients with cholestasis. Serum was incubated with various saline solutions of taurocholic, lithocholic, deoxycholic and glycocholic acids. The concentration of LP-X decreased only after the final concentrations of bile salts were over 2,000 mumole/1. This is more than five times the concentration of serum bile salts usually found in patients with cholestasis. It is concluded that the negative LP-X test in some patients with cholestases must be explained by some other mechanisms than bile salts.
mesh_terms: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000097:blood*; D002779:Cholestasis / Q000097:blood*; D004587:Electrophoresis, Agar Gel; D006801:Humans; D008073:Lipoprotein-X / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts; D008073:Lipoprotein-X