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Highlight report: New insights in liver physiology: Canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated

One of the central functions of the liver is excretion of bile into the intestine. Currently, bile excretion is explained by the osmotic model, according to which bile acids are excreted by hepatocytes into the bile canaliculi and since bile acids are osmotically active they draw water into the cana...

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Autor principal: Ezzat Ahmed, Ahmed
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7527507/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33013271
http://dx.doi.org/10.17179/excli2020-2836
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author Ezzat Ahmed, Ahmed
author_facet Ezzat Ahmed, Ahmed
author_sort Ezzat Ahmed, Ahmed
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description One of the central functions of the liver is excretion of bile into the intestine. Currently, bile excretion is explained by the osmotic model, according to which bile acids are excreted by hepatocytes into the bile canaliculi and since bile acids are osmotically active they draw water into the canalicular lumen. Bile canaliculi are closed at the central side. Therefore, bile was postulated to flow to the open side into the ducts. However, bile flow in canaliculi has never been measured because of the small canalicular diameter which does not allow analysis of flux by conventional methods. Recently, methods have been developed that allow flow analysis in bile canaliculi and ducts. Interestingly, no measurable directed flow was observed in the canaliculi. Instead, small molecules in bile canaliculi reached the larger bile ducts by diffusion. Only there measurable flow sets in. The pathophysiological implications of this novel observation are discussed.
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spelling pubmed-75275072020-10-01 Highlight report: New insights in liver physiology: Canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated Ezzat Ahmed, Ahmed EXCLI J Editorial Material One of the central functions of the liver is excretion of bile into the intestine. Currently, bile excretion is explained by the osmotic model, according to which bile acids are excreted by hepatocytes into the bile canaliculi and since bile acids are osmotically active they draw water into the canalicular lumen. Bile canaliculi are closed at the central side. Therefore, bile was postulated to flow to the open side into the ducts. However, bile flow in canaliculi has never been measured because of the small canalicular diameter which does not allow analysis of flux by conventional methods. Recently, methods have been developed that allow flow analysis in bile canaliculi and ducts. Interestingly, no measurable directed flow was observed in the canaliculi. Instead, small molecules in bile canaliculi reached the larger bile ducts by diffusion. Only there measurable flow sets in. The pathophysiological implications of this novel observation are discussed. Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors 2020-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC7527507/ /pubmed/33013271 http://dx.doi.org/10.17179/excli2020-2836 Text en Copyright © 2020 Ezzat Ahmed http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Editorial Material
Ezzat Ahmed, Ahmed
Highlight report: New insights in liver physiology: Canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated
title Highlight report: New insights in liver physiology: Canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated
title_full Highlight report: New insights in liver physiology: Canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated
title_fullStr Highlight report: New insights in liver physiology: Canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated
title_full_unstemmed Highlight report: New insights in liver physiology: Canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated
title_short Highlight report: New insights in liver physiology: Canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated
title_sort highlight report: new insights in liver physiology: canalicular bile flux is diffusion dominated
topic Editorial Material
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7527507/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33013271
http://dx.doi.org/10.17179/excli2020-2836
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