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Updated: May 6, 2026
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Using Multi-fluorinated Bile Acids and In Vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Measure Bile Acid Transport
Published on: November 27, 2016
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Inhibition of methanogenesis by human bile
1University of Queensland, Department of Medicine, Mater Misericordiae Hospital, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Gut
|September 1, 1995
Summary
Bile acids in the human gut significantly inhibit methane production by gut microbes. This bile acid effect may explain why some individuals are non-methanogenic, impacting conditions like obesity and Crohn's disease.
Area of Science:
- Gastroenterology
- Microbiology
- Human Physiology
Background:
- Methanogenesis, the production of methane by microorganisms, is a significant process in the human gut.
- The regulatory factors controlling human methanogenesis remain largely undefined.
- Bile acids, secreted from the small intestine into the colon, are hypothesized to play a regulatory role.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of human bile on methane production in fecal cultures.
- To examine the in vivo impact of biliary diversion on breath methane excretion in a patient with a methanogenic choledochostomy.
Main Methods:
- Anaerobic incubation of fecal suspensions with varying concentrations of human bile.
- Measurement of headspace methane using gas chromatography.
- Assessment of breath methane excretion in a patient before and after reversal of a bile fistula.
Main Results:
- Human bile demonstrated a dose-dependent inhibition of methanogenesis in fecal cultures.
- Maximum inhibition of methane production by bile reached 38%.
- Reversal of a bile fistula in a patient shifted them from a methanogenic to a non-methanogenic state.
Conclusions:
- Bile acids can significantly inhibit methanogens in the human colon.
- This bile acid-mediated inhibition, along with transit time, may explain the epidemiology of non-methanogenesis.
- Factors influencing methanogenesis are relevant to conditions such as obesity and Crohn's disease.
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