title: Bile acid metabolism in low birthweight infants.
abstract: The early synthesis of bile acids is described. From 28 weeks of gestation cholic acid is the predominating bile acid, but the bile acid pool is very small in preterm infants, leading to a low intraduodenal concentration of bile acids, especially during digestion of meals. Preliminary results indicate that preterm infants excrete less cholic and more 3 beta 0H5-cholenoic acid in the urine than fullterm infants indicating a functional minor pathway in the synthesis of chenodeoxycholic acid. The tetrahydroxylated bile acids, which tend to dominate in the urine of newborn, have been shown to be products of the most common bile acid in cholestatic adults, and may thus be the result of a "physiological cholestasis" in the newborn.
mesh_terms: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000378:metabolism*; D001711:Biotransformation; D002793:Cholic Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007408:Intestinal Absorption; D008657:Metabolic Clearance Rate
chemical_list: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts; D002793:Cholic Acids; D004041:Dietary Fats