[24-14C]Dehydrocholic acid (triketo-5-β-cholanoic acid) was synthesized from [24-14C]cholic acid, mixed with 200 mg of carrier, and administered intravenously to two patients with indwelling T tubes designed to permit bile sampling without interruption of the enterohepatic circulation. More than 80% of infused radioactivity was excreted rapidly in bile as glycine- and taurine-conjugated bile acids. Radioactive products were identified, after deconjugation, as partially or completely reduced derivatives of dehydrocholic acid. By mass spectrometry, as well as chromatography, the major metabolite (about 70%) was a dihydroxy monoketo bile acid (3α,7α-dihydroxy-12-keto-5β-cholanoic acid); a second metabolite (about 20%) was a monohydroxy diketo acid (3α-hydroxy-7,12-di-keto-5β-cholanoic acid); and about 10% of radioactivity was present as cholic acid. Reduction appeared to have been sequential (3 position, then 7 position, and then 12 position) and stereospecific (only α epimers were recovered).
Roger D. Soloway, Alan F. Hofmann, Paul J. Thomas, Leslie J. Schoenfield, Peter D. Klein
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