Production of bile duct hyperplasia and gallstones by lithocholic acid.

Lithocholic acid 1 is an important metabolite of cholesterol in man and other animals.Interest in its biological properties stems from its marked toxicity.It is the most potent of the naturally oc- curring steroids that produce intense fever and in- flammation in man (2, 3) and inflammation in a number of other species (3,4).It is also one of the most active steroid hemolysins (5).In addi- tion, its oral administration produces cirrhosis of the liver in rabbits ( 6) and ductular cell hyper- plasia in a variety of species, including rodents (7), reptiles (8), and primates (9).In view of its physiological occurrence, its known toxic proper- ties, and its potential relevance to human disease, we have investigated the effects of feeding large amounts of lithocholic acid to rats.The resulting bile duct hyperplasia and choledocholithiasis are described in this report. MethodsThe acute effects of lithocholic acid and sodium litho- cholate on Sprague-Dawley rats were investigated in *