For Stacie regarding bile......was Zoe on antibiotics?? Larry was!!

Prolonged induction of germfree bile acid pattern in conventional rats by
antibiotics.
Gustafsson BE, Gustafsson J, Carlstedt-Duke B
Acta Med Scand 1977, 201:3155-60
[Related MEDLINE Records]

Abstract
Male conventional rats have been treated for five days with
benzylpenicillin, neomycin, kanamycin, erythromycin, bacitracintneomycin,
succihylsulfathiazole or metronidazole. Total fecal bile acids were analyzed
in samples collected during periods of three days during the pretreatment
period and during the eight weeks following drug treatment. Metronidazole or
succinylsulfathiazole had no or minor effects on the conventional bile acid
pattern and the ''bile acid index'' (ratio beta-muricholic acid/deoxycholic
acid) remained low. Benzylpenicillin, neomycin or kanamycin induced a
germfree bile acid pattern, i.e. increased the relative amounts of alpha-and
beta-muricholic acid in feces and eliminated deoxycholic acid and
hyodeoxycholic acid from feces. The high bile acid index was normalized
within three weeks after termination of drug treatment but the excretion of
alpha- and beta-muricholic acid was not normalized until a normal flora had
been established by giving an enema with intestinal contents from intact,
oncentional rats. Treatment with eythromycin or bacitracintineomycin also
produced a germfree bile acid pattern. In these cases, the bile acid index
was not back to normal until after five to eight weeks and the excretion of
the muricholic acids was not normalized until an enema with intestinal
bacteria had been given. It is suggested that these long-lasting effects of
antibiotics on the metabolism of bile acids in the intestinal tract should
be considered after short-term antibiotic therapy in humans.

MeSH
Animal; Antibiotics (*PD); Bacitracin (PD); Bile Acids and Salts (*/AN);
Erythromycin (PD); Feces (AN); Germ-Free Life (*); Kanamycin (PD); Male;
Metronidazole (PD); Neomycin (PD); Penicillin G (PD); Rats; Sulfathiazoles
(PD); Time Factors;