Studies on the Cholesterol Pool as the Precursor of Bile Acids in the Rat

Abstract

After rats with bile fistulas were injected with either [4-¹⁴C]cholesterol or [4-¹⁴C]-cholesteryl oleate, or with a mixture of [1, 2-³H]cholesterol and DL-[2-¹⁴C]mevalonate, biliary bile acids and cholesterol in both liver and serum were separated by chroma-tography and analyzed. The data obtained suggested that the immediate precursor of bile acids was the free cholesterol but not the esterified one and that both cholic and chenodeoxycholic acids originated from a common precursor cholesterol pool.