Journal
BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA-MOLECULAR AND CELL BIOLOGY OF LIPIDS
Volume 1781, Issue 3, Pages 79-96Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbalip.2007.12.002
Keywords
ABC transporters; bile acids; cholesterol; nuclear receptors; phospholipids
Funding
- Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro Funding Source: Custom
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Bile formation springs from an extraordinary sophisticated secretory network, which combines the activity of transport proteins with the physicochemical properties of small albeit powerful lipophilic compounds. This robust interplay is activated in response to dietary stimuli, circadian rhythms, and metabolic demands to regulate cholesterol disposal, lipid digestion and absorption in the enterohepatic system. As a result, bile flow is a complex multi-organ effort that requires an integrated flux of information between liver and intestine. A coordinate regulatory task is achieved by nuclear receptors, which are ligand activated transcription factors, responsible for the coherent activation of sets of genes involved in multiple physiological actions, including hepato-biliary homeostasis. Mastering the molecular pathways underlying functional and pharmacological modulation of bile flow has great translational value for potential future treatment of cholestasis and cholelithiasis. In this review, we focus on recent discoveries in the functional biology of bile formation with the explicit aim of underlining their putative clinical relevance. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available