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Liver

PET for bile transport kinetics

Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 14, pages 260–261 (2017)Cite this article

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Bile acids undergo enterohepatic circulation and the efficient uptake from blood and subsequent secretion into bile is crucial to prevent accumulation of these cytotoxic compounds in the liver. Bile acid uptake, secretion and backflux to the blood have been previously studied in vitro but now the Liver-PET Group at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, have developed a quantitative in vivo method. “With a suitable tracer, PET would enable us to explore previously unanswered questions about bile acid transport and cholestasis, including determination of the rate constants for specific transport steps and the effects of cholestasis,” explains author Micheal Sørensen.

The investigators previously developed their PET tracer, 11C-CSar, a radiolabelled conjugated bile acid analogue, and tested its performance in pigs. In the present study, they applied their method to humans using nine healthy individuals and eight patients with varying degrees of cholestasis. “The method combines 3D PET measurements of the radioactivity concentration time-course in liver and bile ducts with measurements in blood and of hepatic blood flow using indocyanine green,” explains Sørensen. “This enabled us to differentiate and quantify the 11C-CSar kinetics.”

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References

  1. Ørntoft, N. W. et al. Hepatobiliary transport kinetics of the conjugated bile acid tracer 11C-CSar quantified in healthy humans and patients by positron emission tomography (PET). J. Hepatol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhep.2017.02.023 (2017)

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  1. Iain Dickson
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Dickson, I. PET for bile transport kinetics. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 14, 260–261 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2017.36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2017.36

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