Question

What is the function of bile salts?

Answer 1

Bile pigments are the excretory products of liver. It includes biliverdin and bilirubin. Bile pigments are normally excreted within the feces and make the feces appear brown.

Step by step answer: Bile is an aqueous, alkaline, greenish-yellow liquid. Bile salts are manufactured from bile acids that are conjugated with glycine or taurine. They're produced within the liver, directly from cholesterol. Bile is formed of bile acids, cholesterol, phospholipids, bile pigments, electrolytes, and water. These are split into:
-Bile acid-dependent component: This can be produced by hepatocytes. They secrete bile acids, bile pigments, and cholesterol into canaliculi.
-Bile acid-independent component is formed by ductal cells lining the bile ducts. These cells secrete an alkaline solution.
Bile Acids and Bile Salts
There are 2 primary bile acids- Cholic acid and chenodeoxycholic acid. When bile acids get conjugated with glycine and taurine bile salts are formed. The bile salts are rather more soluble than bile acids thus act as detergents to emulsify lipids. Bile salts are amphipathic and have a hydrophobic end (lipid-soluble) and a hydrophilic end (water-soluble) which helps bile salts in emulsifying fats into smaller droplets.
Bile acids coat products of lipid breakdown, cholesterol and phospholipids thus forming spherical structures called micelles which play a very important role within the digestion of fats and transport their contents to the intestinal epithelium.
Functions of bile salts:
-Bile salts play an important role in hepatobiliary and intestinal homeostasis and digestion.
-The liver synthesizes primary bile salts from cholesterol.
-Bile salts play an important role in intestinal fat absorption. They function as surfactants accustomed solubilize dietary fats.
-Bile salts have a potent antibacterial effect that will stimulate bile flow.

Note: Bile is continuously produced, however since it is needed during and after meals hence gallbladder concentrates and stores it. After a meal, cholecystokinin is released from the duodenum which stimulates gallbladder contraction and relaxes the sphincter of Oddi, further allowing bile to flow into the duodenum.