Bile salts are synthesized from cholesterol and are used for the emulsification of dietary lipids. What is the primary fate of bile salts during digestion?

-They are reabsorbed in the ileum

-They are excreted in the feces

-They are digested by pancreatic lipase

-They are packaged into chylomicrons

The correct answer is ''They are reabsorbed in the ileum.''

Explanation:

Bile salts are the fundamental constituent of bile, solubilizing dietary lipids so that they can be absorbed. Bile salts are the main products of cholesterol degradation and are poorly absorbed by passive diffusion in the proximal portion of the small intestine and most of the intestinal bile salts are reabsorbed in the terminal ileum, which actively absorbs 90 % of bile salts to the portal venous circulation, which returns them, again, to the hepatocytes that conjugate and excrete, again, the bile into the gallbladder. Bile salts circulate through this pathway from the liver to the intestine and again to the liver (enterohepatic circulation) between 10 and 12 times a day.