Effects of bile and bile acids on cultured human fibroblasts.

Impaired healing induced by leakage of bile has been postulated as one factor responsible for complications after reconstructive bile duct surgery. The cytotoxicity of human bile and its major bile acids on cultured human fibroblasts was therefore studied by evaluation of their effects on cell morphology and growth, on synthesis and secretion of 35SO4-mucopolysaccharides and on release of a lysosomal enzyme. Normal human fibroblasts derived from a standard culture strain (MRC-5) were grown to confluence and exposed to: (1) sterile human T-tube bile, (2) a mixture of bile acids resembling that of human bile, or (3) various concentrations of the glycine- and taurine conjugates of cholic, chenodeoxycholic or deoxycholic acid.