Bile acid homeostasis paradigm and its connotation with cholestatic liver diseases

Bile acid (BA) has an important role in signal transduction, and has clinical applicability as an early biomarker for the diagnosis and prevention of cholestatic liver disease, which has a close relationship with BA homeostasis. Understanding the regulatory factors, function, and regulation of BA homeostasis under physiological conditions and in cholestatic liver diseases could provide novel therapeutic approaches for treating cholestatic liver injury. Here, we review potential biomarkers of BA, and new therapeutic approaches and the latest therapeutic drugs for cholestasis. We believe that the molecular mechanisms of cholestasis and the identification of key regulatory mechanisms of the enterohepatic circulation of BA could be pharmacologically targeted to cholestatic liver diseases.