Bile acids are a group of compounds essential for lipid digestion and absorption with a steroid skeleton and a carboxylate side chain usually conjugated to glycine or taurine. Bile acids are regulatory molecules for a number of metabolic processes and can be used as biomarkers of various disorders. Since the middle of the twentieth century, the detection of bile acids has evolved from simple qualitative analysis to accurate quantification in complicated mixtures. Advanced methods are required to characterize and quantify individual bile acids in these mixtures. This article overviews the literature from the last two decades (2000–2020) and focuses on bile acid analysis in various human biological samples. The methods for sample preparation, including the sample treatment of conventional (blood plasma, blood serum, and urine) and unconventional samples (bile, saliva, duodenal/gastric juice, feces, etc.) are shortly discussed. Eventually, the focus is on novel analytical approaches and methods for each particular biological sample, providing an overview of the microcolumn separation techniques, such as high‐performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography, and capillary electrophoresis, used in their analysis. This is followed by a discussion on selected clinical applications.

中文翻译：

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用微柱分离技术分析人类生物样品中的胆汁酸：综述。

胆汁酸是一组对脂质消化和吸收必不可少的化合物，具有类固醇骨架和羧酸盐侧链，通常与甘氨酸或牛磺酸结合。胆汁酸是许多代谢过程的调节分子，可用作各种疾病的生物标志物。自 20 世纪中叶以来，胆汁酸的检测已经从简单的定性分析发展到复杂混合物中的准确定量。需要先进的方法来表征和量化这些混合物中的单个胆汁酸。本文概述了过去二十年（2000-2020 年）的文献，重点关注各种人类生物样本中的胆汁酸分析。样品制备方法，包括常规（血浆、血清、和尿液）和非常规样本（胆汁、唾液、十二指肠/胃液、粪便等）进行简短讨论。最后，重点是针对每个特定生物样品的新型分析方法和方法，概述了用于分析的微柱分离技术，例如高效液相色谱、气相色谱和毛细管电泳。接下来是对选定的临床应用的讨论。