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Author Study may help prevent liver disease
Alan

2005-12-14, 11:00 am

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/ind...I-1-20051011-15
590500-bc-us-bile.xml

DALLAS, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Dallas scientists have found the small intestine
communicates with the liver to control bile acid -- a finding that may help
treat liver disease.

The researchers at the university of Texas Southwestern Medical School say their
finding might help prevent liver damage that occurs in biliary cirrhosis, viral
hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease and pregnancy.

The liver makes bile acids that help digest fatty foods and fat-soluble vitamins
in the small intestine.

The acids are sent to the gall bladder, where they're stored until food is
digested, the scientists explained. That stimulates the gall bladder into
releasing the bile acids into the small intestine, where they do their work
before being re absorbed into the bloodstream and returned to the liver.

Scientists have known about a mechanism within the liver that prevents too much
bile acid from being produced. But in the recent study, researchers looked at a
protein in mice called fibroblast growth factor 15 and found it was made in the
small intestine, not in the liver. That, they said, suggests a new role for the
small intestine in regulating bile acid levels.

The study appears in the October issue of Cell Metabolism.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.



Alan

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