Bile Salt Transporters: Molecular Characterization, Function, and Regulation

2003 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 633-671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Trauner ◽  
James L. Boyer

Molecular medicine has led to rapid advances in the characterization of hepatobiliary transport systems that determine the uptake and excretion of bile salts and other biliary constituents in the liver and extrahepatic tissues. The bile salt pool undergoes an enterohepatic circulation that is regulated by distinct bile salt transport proteins, including the canalicular bile salt export pump BSEP (ABCB11), the ileal Na+-dependent bile salt transporter ISBT (SLC10A2), and the hepatic sinusoidal Na+- taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide NTCP (SLC10A1). Other bile salt transporters include the organic anion transporting polypeptides OATPs (SLC21A) and the multidrug resistance-associated proteins 2 and 3 MRP2,3 (ABCC2,3). Bile salt transporters are also present in cholangiocytes, the renal proximal tubule, and the placenta. Expression of these transport proteins is regulated by both transcriptional and posttranscriptional events, with the former involving nuclear hormone receptors where bile salts function as specific ligands. During bile secretory failure (cholestasis), bile salt transport proteins undergo adaptive responses that serve to protect the liver from bile salt retention and which facilitate extrahepatic routes of bile salt excretion. This review is a comprehensive summary of current knowledge of the molecular characterization, function, and regulation of bile salt transporters in normal physiology and in cholestatic liver disease and liver regeneration.

1995 ◽  
Vol 269 (6) ◽  
pp. G801-G812 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Meier

An increasingly complex picture has emerged in recent years regarding the bile salt transport polarity of hepatocytes. At the sinusoidal (or basolateral) plasma membrane two bile salt-transporting polypeptides have been cloned. The Na(+)-taurocholate-cotransporting polypeptide (Ntcp) can account for most, if not all, physiological properties of the Na(+)-dependent bile salt uptake function in mammalian hepatocytes. The cloned organic anion-transporting protein (Oatp1) can mediate Na(+)-independent transport of bile salts, sulfobromophthalein, estrogen conjugates, and a variety of other amphipathic cholephilic compounds. Hence, Oatp1 appears to correspond to the previously suggested basolateral multispecific bile sale transporter. Intracellular bile salt transport can be mediated by different pathways. Under basal bile salt flux conditions, conjugated trihydroxy bile salts bind to cytoplasmic binding proteins and reach the canalicular plasma membrane predominantly via cytoplasmic diffusion. More hydrophobic mono- and dihydroxy and high concentrations of trihydroxy bile salts associate with intracellular membrane-bound compartments, including transcytotic vesicles, endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and Golgi complex. A facilitated bile salt diffusion pathway has been demonstrated in the ER. The exact role of these and other (e.g., lysosomes, "tubulovesicular structures") organelles in overall vectorial transport of bile salts across hepatocytes is not yet known. Canalicular bile salt secretion is mediated by two ATP-dependent transport systems, one for monovalent bile salts and the second for divalent sulfated or glucuronidated bile salt conjugates. The latter is identical with the canalicular multispecific organic anion transporter, which also transports other divalent organic anions, such as glutathione S-conjugates. Potential dependent canalicular bile salt secretion has also been suggested to occur, but its exact mechanism and physiological significance remain unclear, since a potential driven bile salt uptake system has also been identified in the ER. Hypothetically, and similar to changes in cell volume, the intracellular potential could also play a role in the regulation of the number of bile salt carriers at the canalicular membrane and thereby indirectly influence the maximal canalicular bile salt transport capacity of hepatocytes.


1993 ◽  
Vol 265 (1) ◽  
pp. G73-G80
Author(s):  
S. A. Weinman ◽  
R. P. Weeks

The importance of membrane voltage in uptake of bile salts into hepatocytes is not known. Electrogenicity of the primary bile salt transport process, Na-bile salt cotransport, has been difficult to determine because the large K and Cl conductances of the sinusoidal membrane (GK and GCl, respectively) obscure any transport associated currents. In the present study hepatocytes were treated to reduce these membrane conductances and electrogenic entry of taurocholate and glycocholate was demonstrated. Intracellular voltage and resistance changes resulting from bile salt transport were measured in hepatocytes in which GK and GCl were blocked by impalement with Na acetate microelectrodes and external exposure to quinine (400 microM). This increased the cell input resistance from 153 +/- 17 to 230 +/- 17 M omega (n = 14, P < 0.001). Under these conditions, exposure to 100 microM of taurocholate or glycocholate produced Na-dependent depolarizations of 3.0 +/- 0.5 and 4.2 +/- 0.8 mV, respectively. These correspond to transport currents of 13.9 and 7.6 pA/cell, which are comparable to those predicted from known [3H]taurocholate uptake rates if one positive charge enters the cell with each bile salt molecule. Although uptake of these two bile salts was electrogenic, this was not the case for all bile salts. Na-dependent transport of taurodehydrocholate, which occurs at similar rates to that for taurocholate, produced no voltage change. The unconjugated bile salts cholate and ursodeoxycholate also produced no measurable voltage or resistance changes. In conclusion, Na-dependent uptake of taurocholate and glycocholate is electrogenic, whereas uptake of taurodehydrocholate, ursodeoxycholate, and cholate is predominantly electroneutral.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (suppl d) ◽  
pp. 99D-104D ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Trauner ◽  
Peter Fickert ◽  
Rudolf E Stauber

Hepatic uptake and excretion of bile salts and several nonbile salt organic anions (eg, bilirubin) are mediated by a distinct set of polarized transport systems at the basolateral and apical plasma membrane domains of hepatocytes and bile duct epithelial cells (cholangiocytes). With the increasing availability of molecular probes for these transporters, evidence now exists that decreased or even absent expression of hepatobiliary transport proteins in hepatocytes or cholangiocytes may explain impaired transport function that results in hyperbilirubinemia and cholestasis. This review summarizes the molecular defects in hepatocellular membrane transporters that are associated with hereditary and acquired forms of cholestatic liver disease.


1980 ◽  
Vol 238 (1) ◽  
pp. G34-G39 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. De Witt ◽  
L. Lack

The absorption of 14C-labeled 3 alpha-, the 7 alpha- and the 3 alpha,7 alpha-sulfate esters of taurochenodeoxycholate by guinea pig small intestine was studied using in vivo and in vitro preparations. In vivo ileal perfusions showed that sulfation markedly decreased uptake by the ileal bile salt transport system and that the position and number of the sulfate radicals affected the degree of transport inhibition. The following relationships were found: transport of taurochenodeoxycholate (TCDC) greater than TCDC-3-sulfate greater than TCDC-7 sulfate greater than TCDC-3,7-disulfate with a decrease of approximately 90% between each pair. In vitro, jejunal perfusions demonstrated that sulfation also decreased passive flux. By use of an everted gut sac technique, the ability of ileum to move the sulfated bile salts against a concentration gradient was measured. Under these conditions transport of TCDC-3-sulfate was minimal, and that of the 7-sulfate and 3,7-disulfate was not observed. In view of the reported increased levels of sulfated bile salts after total or partial biliary tract obstruction, our results support the concept of sulfation as an adaptive mechanism for enhancing fecal elimination of bile salts.


Hepatology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 195-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Coen C. Paulusma ◽  
Annemiek Groen ◽  
Cindy Kunne ◽  
Kam S. Ho-Mok ◽  
Astrid L. Spijkerboer ◽  
...  

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEOFFREY J. BECKETT ◽  
IAIN W. PERCY-ROBB

1994 ◽  
Vol 299 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Fricker ◽  
V Dubost ◽  
K Finsterwald ◽  
J L Boyer

The substrate specificity for the transporter that mediates the hepatic uptake of organic anions in freshly isolated hepatocytes of the elasmobranch little skate (Raja erinacea) was determined for bile salts and bile alcohols. The Na(+)-independent transport system exhibits a substrate specificity, which is different from the specificity of Na(+)-dependent bile salt transport in mammals. Unconjugated and conjugated di- and tri-hydroxylated bile salts inhibit uptake of cholyltaurine and cholate competitively. Inhibition is significantly greater with unconjugated as opposed to glycine- or taurine-conjugated bile salts. However, the number of hydroxyl groups in the steroid moiety of the bile salts has only minor influences on the inhibition by the unconjugated bile salts. Since the transport system seems to represent an archaic organic-anion transport system, other anions, such as dicarboxylates, amino acids and sulphate, were also tested, but had no inhibitory effect on bile salt uptake. To clarify whether bile alcohols, the physiological solutes in skate bile, share this transport system, cholyltaurine transport was studied after addition of 5 beta-cholestane-3 beta,5 alpha,6 beta-triol, 5 alpha-cholestan-3 beta-ol and 5 beta-cholestane-3 alpha, 7 alpha, 12 alpha-triol. These bile alcohols inhibit cholyltaurine uptake non-competitively. In contrast, uptake of 5 beta-cholestane-3 alpha,7 alpha,12 alpha-triol, which is Na(+)-independent, is not inhibited by cholyltaurine. The findings further characterize a Na(+)-independent organic-anion transport system in skate liver cells, which is not shared by bile alcohols and has preference for unconjugated lipophilic bile salts.


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