Effects of cholera enterotoxin, glucagon, and dibutyryl cyclic AMP on rat liver alkaline phosphatase, bile flow, and bile composition.

Cholera enterotoxin, 45 mug per 250 g body weight, administered intravenously to rats, caused a 6-fold rise in the activity of liver alkaline phosphatase in 12 hr. There was no change in bile volume or in the concentration or total bile content of Na+, K+, HCO3-, or Cl- for 36 hr after the administration of cholera toxin. However, bile phospholipid output fell markedly from a control level of 15.0 +/- 1.0 mumol per 6 hr to a low level of 4.0 +/- 1.2 mumol per 6 hr in the 12- to 18-hr collection, P less than 0.001. There was a similar fall in bile acid secretion, from a control value of 9.8 +/- 0.4 mumol per 6 hr to 4.1 +/- 0.9 mumol in the 12- to 18-hr period, P less than 0.01. The cholera effect was prolonged. Bile acid and phospholipid secretion rates did not return to control values until 30 to 36 hr after the administration of cholera enterotoxin. The cholera toxin-induced reductions in bile acid and phospholipid secretion into bile did not appear to be mediated by adenyl cyclase or cyclic AMP because neither glucagon, a known stimulator of liver adenyl cyclase, nor dibutyryl cyclic AMP had any effect on the secretion into bile of bile acids or phospholipid. The administration of cholera toxin was not associated with any increase in the secretion of free choline into bile. Glucagon and dibutyryl cyclic AMP, two other substances known to increase the activity of rat liver alkaline phosphatase, also had no stimulatory effect on the secretion of free choline into bile. The results do not support the hypothesis that the main function of rat liver alkaline phosphatase is to facilitate the excretion of free choline into bile.