Research progress on relationship between bile acids and intestinal mucosal mechanical barrier function

Intestinal mucosal mechanical barrier is one of the most important structure to maintain the body homeostasis. The occurrences of inflammatory bowel disease, necrotizing enterocolitis and poor prognosis of patients with obstructive jaundice are closely related to the damage of the mucosal barrier function. Long-term high fat diet and obstructive jaundice can cause the abnormality of bile acids metabolism. These pathological conditions are often associated with the destruction of intestinal mucosal barrier function. So the correlations between abnormal bile metabolism and intestinal mucosal mechanical barrier function have aroused interests of many researchers. They found that bile acids the important component of bile are closely related to the intestinal barrier function. The paper reviewed the recent articles and summarized the mechanisms of the deficiency of bile acids, excessive bile acids and abnormal bile acids composition damaging the intestinal mucosal barrier function. It will provide refe-rence for the new fields of study, prevention of the toxic effects of bile acids and the improvement of the prognosis of patients. Key words: Inflammatory bowel disease; Bile acids; Intestinal barrier function; High-fat diet; Obstructive jaundice