Abstract
Serum bile acids levels were measured by high performance liquid chromatography in 20 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Fasting serum total bile acids (F-TBA) levels increased in 11 among 20 patients with PBC. Nine patients with normal F-TBA levels showed significant decrease of unconjugated bile acids (U-BA) levels and increased taurine conjugated bile acids (T-BA) levels as compared with normal subjects. Regarding individual bile acid in patients with PBC, high levels of serum primary bile acids, low levels of U-BA, increase of cholic to chenodeoxycholic acid ratio and decrease of glycine to taurine conjugated bile acid ratio were found. These findings weres imilar to other cholestatic liver diseases and did not reveal specific composition of serum bile acids in patients with PBC. In five cases out of nine patients with normal F-TAB level, maximum postprandial total bile acid peak (M-TBA) after a test meal was higher than that of normal control. Moreover, M-TBA in three among four patients with normal M-TBA level showed distinct delay of duration up to the peak as compared with normal control. These facts in this study suggest the existence of abnormality in bile acid metabolism in early stage of PBC.
