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Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition logoLink to Archives of Disease in Childhood. Fetal and Neonatal Edition
. 1997 Jul;77(1):F52–F56. doi: 10.1136/fn.77.1.f52

Developmental pattern of 3-oxo-Δ4 bile acids in neonatal bile acid metabolism

T Inoue, A Kimura, K Aoki, M Tohma, H Kato
PMCID: PMC1720670  PMID: 9279184

Abstract

AIMS—To investigate whether a fetal pathway of bile acid synthesis persists in neonates and infants.
METHODS—3-oxo-Δ4 bile acids were determined qualitatively and quantitatively in the urine, meconium, and faeces of healthy neonates and infants, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
RESULTS—The mean percentage of 3-oxo-Δ4 bile acids in total bile acids in urine at birth was significantly higher than that at 3 or 7 days, and at 1 or 3 months of age. The concentration of this component in meconium was significantly higher than that in faeces at 7 days and at 1 or 3 months of age.
CONCLUSIONS—The presence of large amounts of urinary 3-oxo-Δ4 bile acids may indicate immaturity in the activity of hepatic 3-oxo-Δ4-steroid 5β-reductase in the first week of postnatal life. Large amounts of this component in meconium may be due to the ingestion of amniotic fluid by the fetus during pregnancy.

 Keywords: ketonic bile acid; 3-oxo-Δ4 bile acid; 3-oxo-Δ4-steroid 5β-reductase; meconium; gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

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Figure 1  .

Figure 1  

Selected ion GC-MS chromatogram of the methyl ester-trimethylsilyl ether derivatives of a mixture of reference bile acids:1 Nor-CDCA; 2 LCA; 3 DCA; 4 Δ5-3β-ol; 5 CDCA; 6 UDCA; 7 HCA; 8 CA; 9 Δ1-3-one; 10 3-oxo-Δ4 bile acids; 11 CA-1β-ol; 12 CDCA-1β-ol.

Figure 2  .

Figure 2  

Percentage of unconjugated bile acids and of taurine, glycine, and sulphate conjugated bile acids in the urine of neonates in the first week after birth.

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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