Taurocholanic acid

In another study, Wollenweber et al. (9) determined half-life, pool size, and turnover of cholic and chenodeoxycholic acids in six hypercholesterol-emic patients. Their findings are summarized in Table I. It is apparent that turnover of neither cholic nor chenodeoxycholic acid was affected significantly by administration of nicotinic acid. Failey et al (10) found that the ratio of glycocholamic/taurocholanic acid in seven patients treated with nicotinic acid (2 g/day) fell from 4.0 to 1.7. These authors also reported that subjects given 8 g/day of either benzoic or / -aminobenzoic acid showed changes in these ratios of 1.9 to 3.0 and 2.4 to 0.9, respectively. The available data show that nicotinic acid does not affect bile acid metabolism. 

Clofibrate is a widely used hypolipidemic agent whose mode of action, like that of nicotinic acid, has not been unequivocally established (21). In the earliest studies of the effect of this compound on fecal steroid excretion (22), it was concluded that excretion of sterols was increased but that of bile acids was not. The ratio of glycocholanic/taurocholanic acid was unaffected (23). Grundy et al. (24) reported that this drug reduced fecal bile acid excretion in their patients. 

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