Bile Acids and the Gut Microbiome

By Jason M. Ridlon, Daejoong Kang, P. Hylemon, J. Bajaj. Current Opinion in Gastroenterology, 2014

1,144 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Purpose of review We examine the latest research on the emerging bile acid-gut microbiome axis and its role in health and disease. Our focus revolves around two key microbial pathways for degrading bile salts, and the impact of bile acid composition in the gut on the gut microbiome and host physiology. Recent findings Bile acid pool size has recently been shown to be a function of microbial metabolism of bile acids in the intestines. Recent studies have shown potential mechanisms explaining how perturbations in the microbiome affect bile acid pool size and composition. Bile acids are emerging as regulators of the gut microbiome at the highest taxonomic levels. The role of bile acids as hormones and potentiators of liver cancer is also emerging. Summary The host and microbiome appear to regulate bile acid pool size. The host produces a large, conjugated hydrophilic bile acid pool, maintained through positive-feedback antagonism of farnesoid X receptor (FXR) in intestine and liver. Members of the microbiome utilize bile acids and their conjugates resulting in agonism of FXR in intestine and liver resulting in a smaller, unconjugated hydrophobic bile acid pool. Hydrophilicity of the bile acid pool is associated with disease states. Reduced bile acid levels in the gut are associated with bacterial overgrowth and inflammation. Diet, antibiotic therapy, and disease states affect the balance of the microbiome-bile acid pool.

Subfields: Hepatology, Molecular Biology, Oncology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ba9a96933d0cf0f4487ac660f1fdfd198fb2c9cb

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In Hepatology

J. Y. Chiang

In Molecular Biology

In Oncology

Citations in the corpus

Flavonoids as Anticancer Agents (2020, background): “These studies show that flavonoids can affect microbial populations by changing endotoxin production, converting primary into secondary bile acids [220], sustaining immune homeostasis [221] and participating in bioactive and nutrient absorption and metabolism, thereby regulating short-chain fatty ac”
Adipose Tissue Distribution, Inflammation and Its Metabolic Consequences, Including Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease (2020, background): “Bile acids produced by the liver facilitate the absorption of dietary fat in the small intestine, and are known to regulate lipid and glucose metabolism through the FXR (690, 691).”
Bile Acid Signaling in Metabolic Disease and Drug Therapy (2014, background): “Expansion of Firmicutes results in significant expension of DCA-producing bacteria (Ridlon et al., 2014).”
A comparative and functional genomics analysis of the genus Romboutsia provides insight into adaptation to an intestinal lifestyle (2019, background): “The bile acid pool size and composition modulates the size and composition of the 471 intestinal microbiota and vice versa (70, 71).”
Consequences of bile salt biotransformations by intestinal bacteria (2016, background): “Resistance to bile salts is a major selective pressure modulating microbiome structure in the gut.(24) Gut bacteria are resistant to bile salts through a number of mechanisms including; efflux pumps,(25,26) alteration of membrane lipid(27,28) and protein(29,30) composition.”