Comparative studies on the effect of cholesterol feeding on biliary composition

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Abstract
The gallbladder or hepatic bile from six species of animals had a uniformly low cholesterol content far below its maximum solubility. Cholesterol feeding for more than 1 month had little effect on the biliary composition in chickens, rabbits, and rats, but selectively doubled the absolute and relative concentration of cholesterol in the biles of hamsters, and increased the cholesterol concentration to a level of its maximum solubility in gallbladder bile of ground squirrels and hepatic bile of prairie dogs. The gallbladder bile of prairie dogs reached the boundary of metastable supersaturation of cholesterol and subsequently developed cholesterol crystals and gallstones. A circadian change of the relative concentration of bile acid, cholesterol, and phospholipid in the hepatic bile of the rats with chronic biliary drainage was also observed as a consequence of cholesterol feeding.