BILE ACID METABOLISM IN LOW BIRTHWEIGHT INFANTS

Strandvik, B. (Department of Paediatrics and Research Center, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden). Bile acid metabolism in low birth weight infants. Acta Paediatr Scand, Suppl. 296: 71, 1982.—The early synthesis of bile acids is described. From 28 weeks of gestation cholic acid is the predominating bile acid, but the bile acid pool is very small in preterm infants, leading to a low intraduodenal concentration of bile acids, especially during digestion of meals. Preliminary results indicate that preterm infants excrete less cholic and more 3β0H5-cholenoic acid in the urine than fullterm infants indicating a functional minor pathway in the synthesis of chenodeoxycholic acid. The tetrahydroxylated bile acids, which tend to dominate in the urine of newborn, have been shown to be products of the most common bile acid in cholestatic adults, and may thus be the result of a "physiological cholestasis" in the newborn.