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BACKGROUND: The well-known functions of bile acids (BAs) are the emulsification and absorption of lipophilic xenobiotics. However, the emerging evidences in the past decade showed that BAs act as signaling molecules that not only autoregulate their own metabolism and enterohepatic recirculation, but also as important regulators of integrative metabolism by ac-tivating nuclear and membrane-bound G protein-coupled re-ceptors. The present review was to get insight into the role of maintenance of BA homeostasis and BA signaling pathways in development and management of hepatobiliary and intestinal diseases.
DATA SOURCES: Detailed and comprehensive search of PubMed and Scopus databases was carried out for original and review articles.
RESULTS: Disturbances in BA homeostasis contribute to the development of several hepatobiliary and intestinal disorders, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, liver cirrhosis, choles-terol gallstone disease, intestinal diseases and both hepatocel-lular and colorectal carcinoma.
CONCLUSION: Further efforts made in order to advance the understanding of sophisticated BA signaling network may be promising in developing novel therapeutic strategies related not only to hepatobiliary and gastrointestinal but also sys-temic diseases.
