title: Alteration of bile acid metabolism in the rat induced by chronic ethanol consumption.
abstract: Our understanding of the bile acid metabolism is limited by the fact that previous analyses have primarily focused on a selected few circulating bile acids; the bile acid profiles of the liver and gastrointestinal tract pools are rarely investigated. Here, we determined how chronic ethanol consumption altered the bile acids in multiple body compartments (liver, gastrointestinal tract, and serum) of rats. Rats were fed a modified Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet with 38% of calories as ethanol (the amount equivalent of 4-5 drinks in humans). While conjugated bile acids predominated in the liver (98.3%), duodenum (97.8%), and ileum (89.7%), unconjugated bile acids comprised the largest proportion of measured bile acids in serum (81.2%), the cecum (97.7%), and the rectum (97.5%). In particular, taurine-conjugated bile acids were significantly decreased in the liver and gastrointestinal tract of ethanol-treated rats, while unconjugated and glycine-conjugated species increased. Ethanol consumption caused increased expression of genes involved in bile acid biosynthesis, efflux transport, and reduced expression of genes regulating bile acid influx transport in the liver. These results provide an improved understanding of the systemic modulations of bile acid metabolism in mammals through the gut-liver axis.
authors.affiliation: Center for Translational Biomedical Research, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina Research Campus, Kannapolis, North Carolina 28081, USA.
authors.forename: Guoxiang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.forename: Houkai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Qiong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yunping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Xiaojiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Huiyuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Xueqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Shucha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhanxiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Steven H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Zeisel
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000378:metabolism*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts; D000431:Ethanol
keywords: blood; gastrointestinal tract; liver; metabolomics; ultraperformance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry