Electro-chromograms of human bile

Abstract

Fivefold diagrams of concentrated samples of human bile were obtained with paper electrophoresis. In these diagrams were distinguished by means of various staining methods: proteins, lipids, bile pigments, bile acids and cholesterol. The series of diagrams from each bile sample thus obtained is called an ‘electro-chromogram’. These electro-chromograms permit the study of various important bile constituents and their interrelationships. ‘Electro-chromograms’ were made of 112 bile samples from fistulae or obtained by puncture of the hepatic duct during surgery, and 31 bile samples from gall-bladders obtained in surgery. It appeared that:

1. 1. Liver bile is not only quantitatively but also qualitatively different from the concentrated bile in the gall-bladder. Bile of the ‘gall-bladder-type’ contains a high concentration of a lipoprotein complex, probably excreted by the mucosa of the gallbladder. To this lipoprotein, bilirubins, cholesterol and bile acids are complexly bound. The lipoprotein seems to play a major rôle as a stabilizing factor of the solution in the gall-bladder. It is called ‘bili-lipoprotein’. Its role in cholelithiasis is the subject of further investigations.

2. 2. Bile of the ‘liver type’ contains no bili-lipoprotein or in some cases only a small quantity. Two other proteins are always present. Often, two different, direct-reacting bilirubin fractions are found. Bilirubins and bile acids occupy different areas on the filter-paper strips. No evidence of binding between proteins and bilirubin, or of bile acids to bilirubin has been found.

3. 3. A number of still unindentified substances is present.