Effect of bile concentration on human digestion - Human digestion (Mar/15/2006 )

I have been told to make a prediction on the effect of using different bile concentrations, when lipase is digesting milk fat.

I know that bile emulsifies fats etc, but i dont know what would happen if the bile concentration did get too high or too low. .....

is there any optimum concentration? and if so why?

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LBDYOH.... but you may be interested in looking here:
http://arbl.cvmbs.colostate.edu/hbooks/pat...liver/bile.html

Try to think things through. Remember what bile does.... remember what happens when you eat a kilo of butter... When eating a meal that is high in fat content, there may not be an adequate amount of bile in the intestine to properly handle the normal absorption process. The change in intestinal bile concentration during high-fat intake may cause diarrhea or bloating, because excess fat in the intestine will draw more water into the intestine, and because bacteria digest the fat and produce gas.

When you have too much bile in your stomach... sure you could figure this one out (or you could use google). It involves pH levels in the small intestine.

Of course there is an optimum concentration. If not, we'd be spending most of our time in the bathroom.

vetticus

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another example of what it does to have your bile levels out of whack...look up various syndromes and symptoms that can occur in patients after having the gall bladder removed (if you know what the gall bladder does, you know why this would be a problem)

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Thanx thats a lot clearer now. The website was good and i can understand the effects the bile would have on a human.

Linking back to my prediction. I have predicted that the speed of reaction will increase, but then stop at a certain bile concentration.

I predicted this because i thought that after a certain 'threshold', having more bile would go to waste, i.e it would all be being used, (intercollating with the triglyceride etc) and if there were more bile introduced there would not be enough fat for it to attach to...however some of my results have not shown this. I know this could be down to human error as our resources are not perfect, or my prediction could be really of track.

I suppose i am really asking, is my theory along the corret track or am i missing something

Struggling to find information on the net too so any helpful sites would be realy appreciated

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In most people bile acids are absorbed after digestion, but if you have had your gallbladder removed you may produce too much bile. Too much bile acid can result in diarrhea.

In some cases, when a reagent (ie bile acid) is added, the reaction will speed up. In other cases, there is too much of the reagent, and the whole system just stops. Then there is the plateau, where regardless of how much reagent you add the reaction will stay at the same level achieved with the lower amount. Just keep this in mind.

Now, there is an optimum amount of bile for the amount of fat inside the system. For example, say one molecule of bile per molecule of fat. Because we are in excess, we would have one molecule of bile attahced to one molecule of fat, and another couple of bile acids hanging around not attached to anything. You got that. Bile acids change the pH of their environment. This has been linked to some irritation (irritated bowl syndrome).

What experiments have you done?

Bile acids are cytotoxic when present in abnormally high concentrations. This may occur intracellularly, as occurs in the hepatocyte in cholestasis, or extracellulary, as occurs in the colon in patients with bile acid malabsorption.

In the healthy person, the primary bile acids, cholic and chenodeoxycholic acid, are dehydroxylated in the colon and are simultaneously precipitated from solution. At a pH less than 7, deoxycholic and lithocholic acid are insoluble. In patients with bile acid diarrhea resulting from bile acid malabsorption, dehydroxylation is decreased, and the concentration of bile acids in the colon is markedly elevated. The major secretory bile acid in solution is chenodeoxycholic acid. Administration of cholestyramine, a resin that binds bile acid, reduces the elevated concentration of chenodeoxycholic acid and abolishes the diarrhea.

Definately look up gall bladder, pruritis, and cholesterol (especially the drugs used to treat cholesterol). There are also cancers that effect the bile duct.

Vetticus

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This has all really helped with my background knowledge and prediction thanks.

I was however wondering if anyone has any suggestions that may help the rest of mu coursework, I've now done the ile concentration experiment and my results didn't fit my prediction as well as i hoped they would, unfortunately I'm not able to repeat it to get better results, will i be best to just write about why i thought it went wrong ... eg by errors, not the best equipment, or could you suggest anything else?

Any help or suggestions very much appreciated x

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