Hepatocellular carcinoma: Novel understandings and therapeutic strategies based on bile acids (Review)

Abstract Bile acids (BAs) are the major components of bile and products of cholesterol metabolism. Cholesterol is catalyzed by a variety of enzymes in the liver to form primary BAs, which are excreted into the intestine with bile, and secondary BAs are formed under the modification of the gut microbiota. Most of the BAs return to the liver via the portal vein, completing the process of enterohepatic circulation. BAs have an important role in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC),