NURS 203 Lecture Notes - Common Bile Duct, Bilirubin, Urobilinogen
Document Summary
Most of the bilirubin in our blood is unconjugated and derived from the rbc"s when they are old, phagocytosed and destroyed. Unconj bilirubin is the end product, goes to the bloodstream and binds with albumin, goes to the liver and is taken up. None of this is in the urine b/c it is lipid soluble. So, it gets taken up by the liver and is conjugated. Any time the cytochrome p450 conjugates bilirubin, or metabolizes any drug, it renders it water soluble. So, we have a lipid soluble unconjugated bilirubin is converted to conjugated bilirubin (direct bilirubin), which is water soluble. One of the purposes of the liver is to render lipid soluble drugs water soluble, so you can pee them out. So, we conjugate it and have water soluble bilirubin. Once bilirubin is taken up by the liver, it is never close to a vessel.
