Bile acids and lipid metabolism: II. Essential role of bile acids in bile phospholipid excretion

The isolated rat liver perfusion system has been used to study the release of bile phospholipid P 32 following the injection of inorganic P 32 into the perfusate. It was demonsrtated that in the absence of added bile salt very little PLP 32 was excreted into bile, but when bile salt was added to the perfusate the PLP 32 excretion increased markedly. At the start of bile salt infusion, the specific activity of the bile phospholipids was lower than that of the liver, but at later times the specific activity of bile phospholipids was greater than liver PL specific activity. It is suggested that bile acids play an essential role in the transport of phospholipid from liver to bile.