where in the body heme converted to bilirubin?


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Bilirubin is formed when red blood cells die and their hemoglobin is broken down within the macrophages to heme and globins. The heme is further degraded to Fe2+, carbon monoxide and bilirubin via the intermediate compound biliverdin. Since bilirubin is poorly soluble in water, it is carried to the liver and bound to albumin. Bilirubin is made water-soluble in the liver by conjugation with glucuronic acid. Conjugated bilirubin, or bilirubinglucuronide, moves into the bile canaliculi of the liver and then to the gall bladder. When stimulated by eating, bile (including the conjugated bilirubin) is excreted into the small intestine. In the later portions of the small intestine (ileum) and the colon, about half of the bilirubinglucuronide is converted into urobilinogen. Urobilinogen is either reabsorbed or converted by the presence of oxygen to stercobilin. The stercobilin and remaining bilirubinglucuronide are excreted in the feces. These two metabolites of bilirubin are what give feces their characteristic brown color. Small amounts of urobilinogen remaining in the blood are filtered by the kidneys, ending up in the urine as urobilin. This bilirubin metabolite gives urine its characteristic yellow color.

In diseases where too much hemoglobin is broken down or the removal of bilirubin does not function properly, the accumulating bilirubin in the body causes jaundice.
http://web.indstate.edu/thcme/mwking/heme-porphyrin.html


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