Hepatobiliary system
Encyclopedia
This refers to the liver
Liver
The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...

, gall bladder and bile ducts, and how they work together to make bile
Bile
Bile or gall is a bitter-tasting, dark green to yellowish brown fluid, produced by the liver of most vertebrates, that aids the process of digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In many species, bile is stored in the gallbladder and upon eating is discharged into the duodenum...

. Bile consists of water, electrolytes, bile acids, cholesterol, phospholipids and conjugated bilirubin. Some components are synthesised by liver cells, the rest are extracted from the blood by the liver.

Bile is then secreted by the liver into small ducts that join to form the common hepatic duct
Common hepatic duct
The common hepatic duct is the duct formed by the convergence of the right hepatic duct and the left hepatic duct . The common hepatic duct then joins the cystic duct coming from the gallbladder to form the common bile duct...

. Between meals, secreted bile is stored in the gall bladder, where 80%-90% of the water and electrolytes can be absorbed, leaving the bile acids and cholesterol. During a meal, the smooth muscles in the gallbladder wall contract, leading to the bile being secreted into the duodenum
Duodenum
The duodenum is the first section of the small intestine in most higher vertebrates, including mammals, reptiles, and birds. In fish, the divisions of the small intestine are not as clear and the terms anterior intestine or proximal intestine may be used instead of duodenum...

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To see how this relates to the metabolism of bile, read bilirubin metabolism.
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