BA standards were purchased either from Steraloids, Inc. (Newport, RI) or from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). All other chemicals were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich unless noted otherwise. Seven-week-old male C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) mice were purchased from Charles River Laboratories, Inc. (Wilmington, MA). Oatp1b2-null mice were engineered in our laboratory.6 Oatp1b2-null mice were back-crossed into a C57BL/6 background, and >99% congenicity was confirmed by the speed congenics group at Jackson Laboratories (Bar Harbor, ME). WT mice were acclimated for

at least 1 week in an American Animal Associations Laboratory selleck screening library Animal Care accredited facility under a standard temperature-, light-, and humidity-controlled environment. Mice had free access to Laboratory Rodent Chow 8604 (Harlan, Madison, WI) and drinking water. Studies were approved by the University of Kansas Medical Center Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Blood was collected from the suborbital veins of 8-week-old WT and Oatp1b2-null mice anesthetized with 50 mg/kg pentobarbitol (n = 6), and the livers and ilea were removed. Serum samples were separated using AZD2014 research buy Microtainer separating tubes (BD Biosciences,

San Jose, CA). Liver and ileum samples were frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at −80°C until further analysis. Separate groups of 8-week-old WT and Oatp1b2-null mice (n = 6) were anesthetized 上海皓元医药股份有限公司 intraperitoneally

with a ketamine/midazolam mixture (100 and 5 mg/kg, respectively), and the common bile duct of each mouse was cannulated through a high abdominal incision with the shaft of a 30-gauge needle attached to PE-10 tubing. After collection of 10-minute pre-bile, bile samples were collected for two 15-minute periods in preweighed 0.6-mL microcentrifuge tubes on ice. The volumes of bile were determined gravimetrically, using 1.0 for specific gravity. The plasma elimination of BAs was performed on 28- to 38-g, 9- to 12-month-old, age-matched Oatp1b2-null and WT mice (n = 6). The mice were anesthetized intraperitoneally with ketamine/midazolam (100 and 5 mg/kg, respectively), and the body temperature of each mouse was maintained at 37°C with a heating pad. Subsequently, the right carotid artery was cannulated with PE-10 tubing. To avoid possible renal elimination of BAs, the renal pedicles were ligated through a median abdominal incision. To prevent the enterohepatic recirculation of BAs, the common bile duct was cannulated as described above.