Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jan 16;9(2):308-320.
doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i2.308.

Overview of bile acid signaling in the cardiovascular system

Rou Zhang  1 , Wen-Qi Ma  1 , Meng-Jun Fu  1 , Juan Li  1 , Chun-Hua Hu  1 , Yi Chen  1 , Mi-Mi Zhou  1 , Zhi-Jie Gao  1 , Ying-Li He  2
Affiliations
Review

Overview of bile acid signaling in the cardiovascular system

Rou Zhang et al. World J Clin Cases. .

Abstract

Bile acids (BAs) are classically known to play a vital role in the metabolism of lipids and in absorption. It is now well established that BAs act as signaling molecules, activating different receptors (such as farnesoid X receptor, vitamin D receptor, Takeda G-protein-coupled receptor 5, sphingosine-1-phosphate, muscarinic receptors, and big potassium channels) and participating in the regulation of energy homeostasis and lipid and glucose metabolism. In addition, increased BAs can impair cardiovascular function in liver cirrhosis. Approximately 50% of patients with cirrhosis develop cirrhotic cardiomyopathy. Exposure to high concentrations of hydrophobic BAs has been shown to be related to adverse effects with respect to vascular tension, endothelial function, arrhythmias, coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, and heart failure. The BAs in the serum BA pool have relevant through their hydrophobicity, and the lipophilic BAs are more harmful to the heart. Interestingly, ursodeoxycholic acid is a hydrophilic BA, and it is used as a therapeutic drug to reverse and protect the harmful cardiac effects caused by hydrophobic elevated BAs. In order to elucidate the mechanism of BAs and cardiovascular function, abundant experiments have been conducted in vitro and in vivo. The aim of this review was to explore the mechanism of BAs in the cardiovascular system.

Keywords: Arteries; Bile acids; Cardiovascular; Cirrhosis; Receptors; Signaling.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare that: (1) No support, financial or otherwise, has been received from any organization that may have an interest in the submitted work; and (2) There are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Bile acids affect heart function in a number of ways and affect each other. BAs: Bile acids; eNOS: Endothelial nitric oxide synthase; IL-1: Interleukin-1; IL-6: Interleukin-6; LPS: Lipopolysaccharide; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-alpha.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Zhuang S, Li Q, Cai L, Wang C, Lei X. Chemoproteomic Profiling of Bile Acid Interacting Proteins. ACS Cent Sci. 2017;3:501–509. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Di Ciaula A, Garruti G, Lunardi Baccetto R, Molina-Molina E, Bonfrate L, Wang DQ, Portincasa P. Bile Acid Physiology. Ann Hepatol. 2017;16:s4–s14. - PubMed
    1. Chen J, Zhao KN, Chen C. The role of CYP3A4 in the biotransformation of bile acids and therapeutic implication for cholestasis. Ann Transl Med. 2014;2:7. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hofmann AF. Detoxification of lithocholic acid, a toxic bile acid: relevance to drug hepatotoxicity. Drug Metab Rev. 2004;36:703–722. - PubMed
    1. Chen J, Raymond K. Nuclear receptors, bile-acid detoxification, and cholestasis. Lancet. 2006;367:454–456. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources