Detergent properties of bile salts: correlation with physiological function.

The aphorism, "To study the phenomena of disease without books is to sail an uncharted sea, while to study books without patients is not to go to sea at all" (210), applies aptly to bile salts:6 for to consider the function of bile salts in ignorance of their physical properties is to be deprived of many helpful concepts; conversely, studies of the physical properties of bile salts which have been carried out in ignorance of their physiological functions have overlooked many of their distinctive properties. l �.This review summarizes the authors' views of information presently available o n the physical properties of bile salts in solution and at interfaces, both of which are relevant to their physiological function. The detergent