Response of bile flow, biliary lipids and bile acid pool in the pig to quantitative variations in dietary fat

Bile flow, biliary lipids and bile acid pool have been studied in growing pigs adapted to a semipurified diet of 2, 10 or 20% lard. After a 5-day period of apparent digestibility measurement, bile secretion was studied in previously fistulated pigs. The apparent digestibility of lard was maintained at a very high level, whatever quantity of lard was ingested. Daily bile acid output was 49% higher with the 10% lard diet than with the 2% lard diet, whereas no further increase was observed with the 20% lard diet. There was a direct relationship between bile acid output and pool size. Biliary phospholipid output increased by 29.0% between 2 and 10% dietary lard and by 69.5% between 10 and 20% lard. The corresponding rise in biliary cholesterol output was +33% between 2 and 10 or 10 and 20% lard in the diet. A study of biliary kinetics showed that this adaptation of biliary lipid to dietary fat was observed whatever time of the light/dark cycle was considered. These results, together with a recent demonstration of the implication of endogenous phospholipids in fat digestion, suggested that, in the course of biliary lipid adaptation to dietary fat content, biliary phospholipid could act in synergy with bile salt, resulting in the maintenance of excellent dietary fat digestion.