Bile acid and lipid metabolism in hamsters fed with high glucose diet

with special reference to a gallstone model animal with type IV hyperlipidemia

Abstract

The metabolism of cholesterol and bile acids in the liver was investigated in hamsters fed with high glucose diet, as the experimental model of cholesterol gallstone often observed in human type IV hyperlipidemia. Glucose feeding induced augmentation of the activities of both hepaic HMG-CoA reductase, a rate limiting enzyme of cholesterol synthesis, and hepatic cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase, a rate limiting enzyme of bile acid synthesis. The activity of hepatic HMG-CoA reductase exceeded by far that of cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase after the second week of glucose feeding. The dissociation between the activities of both the hepatic enzymes seems to induce extreme increment of cholesterol secretion into bile. Total bile acids secretion into bile didn't increase, although the pool size of bile acids increased.
As a result, it is concluded that the bile becomes supersaturated with cholesterol by glucose feeding and cholesterol gallstone is formed.