Clinical and experimental studies on bile viscosity and its influencing factors

Abstract

We measured the bile viscosity by using our own method. In our series of 89 clinical cases, it was seen that the bile viscosity depends upon the bile hexosamine contents, not upon the cholesterol, phospholipid, total bile acid contents, and lithogenic index in cholelithiasis. Acoording to present experiment it is suggested that the bile viscosity was determined by the bile mucine, because bile hexosamine is one of the components of bile mucine.
In our experimental studies, bile viscosity was found altered a c cording to the bile pH and conductance, suggesting that the bile viscosity is under the influence of pH and charged particles in the bile.
But in the hydrops and empyema vesicae felleae, bile viscosity did not vary according to it's hexosamine contents. And though the viscosity correlated with hexosamine contents, the viscosity of infectious bile was lower than that of sterile bile. These facts denote that there are other factors that influence bile viscosity.