THE TOXIC FACTOR IN BILE

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Gall bladder bile from dogs was injected intraperitoneally, intravenously and subcuta-neously and showed very marked toxic action. Bile treated by various means, such as boiling and freezing, was still toxic. Various extracts of bile evaporated to dryness were made with water, alcohol and ether and when injected gave the same toxic action as the original substance. An attempt was made to extract pure bilirubin quantitatively from bile, which was unsuccessful, so bilirubin was extracted from beef gallstones, and when injected was found to be non-toxic. Dialyzed bile has the same toxicity as whole bile; the non-dialyz-able portion is non-toxic. Impure salts of bile, such as sodium taurocholate, sodium glycocholate and sodium cholate are very toxic; the acids (fairly pure) and their salts were definitely toxic. Cholesterol was non-toxic. Various injections of bile in the dog caused bloody diarrhea, albuminuria, edema of the lungs, diminished rate and amplitude of respiration, first quickening of the heart beat and later bradycardia with marked irregularity. It is thought that the alkaline bile salts dissolve the lipids which are in all living cell walls, causing marked changes in the metabolism of the cell, and this action is reversible as long as a small quantity of bile salts is used.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: