Stercobilin
Stercobilin is a tetrapyrrolic bile pigment and is one end-product of heme catabolism.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: A cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984-986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. Kay IT, Weimer M, Watson CJ (1963)“The formation in vitro of stercobilin from bilirubin”Journal of Biological Chemistry. 238:1122-3. It is the chemical responsible for the brown color of human feces and was originally isolated from feces in 1932. Stercobilin (and related urobilin) can be used as a marker for biochemical identification of fecal pollution levels in rivers. Metabolism Stercobilin results from breakdown of the heme moiety of hemoglobin found in erythrocytes. Macrophages break down senescent erythrocytes and break the heme down into biliverdin, which rapidly reduces to free bilirubin. Bilirubin binds tightly to plasma proteins (especially albumin) in the blood stream and is transported to the liver, where it is conjugated with one or two glucuronic acid r ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stercobilinogen
Stercobilinogen (fecal urobilinogen) is a chemical created by bacteria in the gut. It is made of broken-down hemoglobin. It is further processed to become the chemical that gives feces its brown color. drugs.com is a pigment that results from the breakdown of the portion of hemoglobin. The liver conjugates bilirubin, making it water-soluble; and the conjugated form is then excreted in urine as [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Urobilinogen
Urobilinogen is a colorless by-product of bilirubin reduction. It is formed in the intestines by bacterial action on bilirubin. About half of the urobilinogen formed is reabsorbed and taken up via the portal vein to the liver, enters circulation and is excreted by the kidney. Increased amounts of bilirubin are formed in hemolysis, which generates increased urobilinogen in the gut. In liver disease (such as hepatitis), the intrahepatic urobilinogen cycle is inhibited also increasing urobilinogen levels. Urobilinogen is converted to the yellow pigmented urobilin apparent in urine. The urobilinogen in the intestine is directly reduced to brownish colour stercobilin, which gives the feces their characteristic color. It can also be reduced to stercobilinogen, which can then be further oxidized to stercobilin. In biliary obstruction, below-normal amounts of conjugated bilirubin reach the intestine for conversion to urobilinogen. With limited urobilinogen available for reabsorption and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Obstructive Jaundice
Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving abnormal heme metabolism, liver dysfunction, or biliary-tract obstruction. The prevalence of jaundice in adults is rare, while jaundice in babies is common, with an estimated 80% affected during their first week of life. The most commonly associated symptoms of jaundice are itchiness, pale feces, and dark urine. Normal levels of bilirubin in blood are below 1.0 mg/ dl (17 μmol/ L), while levels over 2–3 mg/dl (34–51 μmol/L) typically result in jaundice. High blood bilirubin is divided into two types – unconjugated and conjugated bilirubin. Causes of jaundice vary from relatively benign to potentially fatal. High unconjugated bilirubin may be due to excess red blood cell breakdown, large bruises, genetic conditions such a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bilirubin
Bilirubin (BR) (Latin for "red bile") is a red-orange compound that occurs in the normal catabolic pathway that breaks down heme in vertebrates. This catabolism is a necessary process in the body's clearance of waste products that arise from the destruction of aged or abnormal red blood cells. In the first step of bilirubin synthesis, the heme molecule is stripped from the hemoglobin molecule. Heme then passes through various processes of porphyrin catabolism, which varies according to the region of the body in which the breakdown occurs. For example, the molecules excreted in the urine differ from those in the feces. The production of biliverdin from heme is the first major step in the catabolic pathway, after which the enzyme biliverdin reductase performs the second step, producing bilirubin from biliverdin.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: a cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984–986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. Ultimately, bilirubin is broken down within ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heme
Heme, or haem (pronounced / hi:m/ ), is a precursor to hemoglobin, which is necessary to bind oxygen in the bloodstream. Heme is biosynthesized in both the bone marrow and the liver. In biochemical terms, heme is a coordination complex "consisting of an iron ion coordinated to a porphyrin acting as a tetradentate ligand, and to one or two axial ligands." The definition is loose, and many depictions omit the axial ligands. Among the metalloporphyrins deployed by metalloproteins as prosthetic groups, heme is one of the most widely used and defines a family of proteins known as hemoproteins. Hemes are most commonly recognized as components of hemoglobin, the red pigment in blood, but are also found in a number of other biologically important hemoproteins such as myoglobin, cytochromes, catalases, heme peroxidase, and endothelial nitric oxide synthase. The word ''haem'' is derived from Greek ''haima'' meaning "blood". Function Hemoproteins have diverse biological f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Urobilin
Urobilin or urochrome is the chemical primarily responsible for the yellow color of urine. It is a linear tetrapyrrole compound that, along with the related colorless compound urobilinogen, are degradation products of the cyclic tetrapyrrole heme. Metabolism Urobilin is generated from the degradation of heme, which is first degraded through biliverdin to bilirubin. Bilirubin is then excreted as bile, which is further degraded by microbes present in the large intestine to urobilinogen. Some of this remains in the large intestine, and its conversion to stercobilin gives feces their brown color. Some is reabsorbed into the bloodstream and then delivered to kidney. When urobilinogen is exposed to air, it is oxidized to urobilin, giving urine its yellow color. Importance Many urine tests (urinalysis) monitor the amount of urobilin in urine, as its levels can give insight on the effectiveness of urinary tract function. Normally, urine would appear as either light yellow or colorless ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Human Feces
Human feces (or faeces in British English) is the solid or semisolid remains of food that could not be digested or absorbed in the small intestine of humans, but has been further broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. It also contains bacteria and a relatively small amount of metabolic waste products such as bacterially altered bilirubin, and the dead epithelial cells from the lining of the gut. It is discharged through the anus during a process called defecation. Human feces has similarities to the feces of other animals and varies significantly in appearance (i.e. size, color, texture), according to the state of the diet, digestive system and general health. Normally human feces is semisolid, with a mucus coating. Small pieces of harder, less moist feces can sometimes be seen impacted in the distal (final or lower) end. This is a normal occurrence when a prior bowel movement is incomplete, and feces is returned from the rectum to the large intestine, where water i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Urobilin
Urobilin or urochrome is the chemical primarily responsible for the yellow color of urine. It is a linear tetrapyrrole compound that, along with the related colorless compound urobilinogen, are degradation products of the cyclic tetrapyrrole heme. Metabolism Urobilin is generated from the degradation of heme, which is first degraded through biliverdin to bilirubin. Bilirubin is then excreted as bile, which is further degraded by microbes present in the large intestine to urobilinogen. Some of this remains in the large intestine, and its conversion to stercobilin gives feces their brown color. Some is reabsorbed into the bloodstream and then delivered to kidney. When urobilinogen is exposed to air, it is oxidized to urobilin, giving urine its yellow color. Importance Many urine tests (urinalysis) monitor the amount of urobilin in urine, as its levels can give insight on the effectiveness of urinary tract function. Normally, urine would appear as either light yellow or colorless ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gastroenterology (journal)
''Gastroenterology'' is the official medical journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Its first issue was published in 1943. It is currently published by Elsevier. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2020 impact factor The impact factor (IF) or journal impact factor (JIF) of an academic journal is a scientometric index calculated by Clarivate that reflects the yearly mean number of citations of articles published in the last two years in a given journal, as ... of 22.682, ranking it 4th among 92 journals in the category "Gasteroenterology & Hepatology". References External links * Elsevier academic journals Publications established in 1943 Gastroenterology and hepatology journals English-language journals Academic journals associated with learned and professional societies Journals published between 13 and 25 times per year {{med-journal-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cholelithiasis
A gallstone is a stone formed within the gallbladder from precipitated bile components. The term cholelithiasis may refer to the presence of gallstones or to any disease caused by gallstones, and choledocholithiasis refers to the presence of migrated gallstones within bile ducts. Most people with gallstones (about 80%) are asymptomatic. However, when a gallstone obstructs the bile duct and causes acute cholestasis, a reflexive smooth muscle spasm often occurs, resulting in an intense cramp-like visceral pain in the right upper part of the abdomen known as a biliary colic (or "gallbladder attack"). This happens in 1–4% of those with gallstones each year. Complications from gallstones may include inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecystitis), inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), obstructive jaundice, and infection in bile ducts ( cholangitis). Symptoms of these complications may include pain that lasts longer than five hours, fever, yellowish skin, vomiting, dark u ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |