Interaction between Cu2+ ions and cholic acid derivatives followed by polarography.

Interaction of bile salts with Cu2+ ions in unbuffered systems containing 0.15 M NaNO3 was followed by measuring polarographic limiting currents and half-wave potentials. Whereas taurocholate forms neither soluble complexes nor compounds of limited solubility, cholate, glycocholate, and dehydrocholate from both soluble complexes and slightly soluble salts of copper(II) with small aggregates of bile salts. The stability of soluble complexes is comparable for cholates, dehydrocholates, acetates, and acetylglycinates, but smaller for glycocholates. The solubility of the copper(II) salts with small aggregates decreases in the sequence: glycocholate > cholate > dehydrocholate. It is proposed that these salts are formed by interaction of a copper(II) ion with two carboxylic groups located on the small aggregate in a sufficiently small distance. In the presence of excess cholate the precipitated copper(II) salts are dissolved. It is assumed that at high bile salt concentrations, where precipitates are not observed, larger aggregates are formed that have free carboxylate groups, which increase their solubility in aqueous solutions. For glycocholate, within the accessible concentration range and within the time-frame used (24 h for the establishment of the equilibrium), the formation of such larger aggregates was not observed, even when its "cmc" is comparable with that of cholate. The absence of formation of larger aggregates for dehydrocholate parallels its tendency not to form "micelles".