Stercobilin is a tetrapyrrolic

bile pigment Bilins, bilanes or bile pigments are biological pigments formed in many organisms as a metabolic product of certain porphyrins. Bilin (also called bilichrome) was named as a bile pigment of mammals, but can also be found in lower vertebrates, inve ...

and is one end-product of

heme Heme, or haem (pronounced / hi:m/ ), is a precursor to hemoglobin, which is necessary to bind oxygen in the bloodstream. Heme is biosynthesized in both the bone marrow and the liver. In biochemical terms, heme is a coordination complex "consisti ...

catabolism.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: A cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984-986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. Kay IT, Weimer M, Watson CJ (1963)
“The formation in vitro of stercobilin from bilirubin”

Journal of Biological Chemistry The ''Journal of Biological Chemistry'' (''JBC'') is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1905., jbc.org Since 1925, it is published by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. It covers research in ...

. 238:1122-3. It is the chemical responsible for the brown color of

human feces Human feces (or faeces in British English) is the solid or semisolid remains of food that could not be digested or absorbed in the small intestine of humans, but has been further broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. It also contains b ...

and was originally isolated from feces in 1932. Stercobilin (and related

urobilin Urobilin or urochrome is the chemical primarily responsible for the yellow color of urine. It is a linear tetrapyrrole compound that, along with the related colorless compound urobilinogen, are degradation products of the cyclic tetrapyrrole heme ...

) can be used as a marker for biochemical identification of fecal pollution levels in rivers.

Metabolism

Stercobilin results from breakdown of the heme

moiety Moiety may refer to: Chemistry * Moiety (chemistry), a part or functional group of a molecule ** Moiety conservation, conservation of a subgroup in a chemical species Anthropology * Moiety (kinship), either of two groups into which a society is ...

of hemoglobin found in

erythrocytes Red blood cells (RBCs), also referred to as red cells, red blood corpuscles (in humans or other animals not having nucleus in red blood cells), haematids, erythroid cells or erythrocytes (from Greek ''erythros'' for "red" and ''kytos'' for "holl ...

Macrophages Macrophages (abbreviated as M φ, MΦ or MP) ( el, large eaters, from Greek ''μακρός'' (') = large, ''φαγεῖν'' (') = to eat) are a type of white blood cell of the immune system that engulfs and digests pathogens, such as cancer ce ...

break down senescent erythrocytes and break the heme down into

biliverdin Biliverdin (latin for green bile) is a green tetrapyrrolic bile pigment, and is a product of heme catabolism.Boron W, Boulpaep E. Medical Physiology: a cellular and molecular approach, 2005. 984-986. Elsevier Saunders, United States. It is the ...

, which rapidly reduces to free

bilirubin Bilirubin (BR) (Latin for "red bile") is a red-orange compound that occurs in the normal catabolic pathway that breaks down heme in vertebrates. This catabolism is a necessary process in the body's clearance of waste products that arise from the ...

. Bilirubin binds tightly to

plasma Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

proteins (especially

albumin Albumin is a family of globular proteins, the most common of which are the serum albumins. All the proteins of the albumin family are water-soluble, moderately soluble in concentrated salt solutions, and experience heat denaturation. Albumins ...

) in the blood stream and is transported to the liver, where it is conjugated with one or two

glucuronic acid Glucuronic acid (from Greek γλεῦκος "''wine, must''" and οὖρον "''urine''") is a uronic acid that was first isolated from urine (hence the name). It is found in many gums such as gum arabic (c. 18%), xanthan, and kombucha tea and ...

residues into

bilirubin diglucuronide Bilirubin di-glucuronide is a conjugated form of bilirubin formed in bilirubin metabolism. The hydrophilic character of bilirubin diglucuronide enables it to be water-soluble. It is pumped across the hepatic canalicular membrane into the bile by th ...

, and secreted into the small intestine as

bile Bile (from Latin ''bilis''), or gall, is a dark-green-to-yellowish-brown fluid produced by the liver of most vertebrates that aids the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. In humans, bile is produced continuously by the liver (liver bile ...

. In the small intestine, some bilirubin glucuronide is converted back to bilirubin via bacterial enzymes in the terminal ileum. This bilirubin is further converted to colorless

urobilinogen Urobilinogen is a colorless by-product of bilirubin reduction. It is formed in the intestines by bacterial action on bilirubin. About half of the urobilinogen formed is reabsorbed and taken up via the portal vein to the liver, enters circulation an ...

. Urobilinogen that remains in the colon can either be reduced to

stercobilinogen Stercobilinogen (fecal urobilinogen) is a chemical created by bacteria in the gut. It is made of broken-down hemoglobin. It is further processed to become the chemical that gives feces its brown color.Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift. 88:477-82.

Role in disease

Obstructive jaundice

obstructive jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving abnormal heme me ...

, no bilirubin reaches the small intestine, meaning that there is no formation of stercobilinogen. The lack of stercobilin and other bile pigments causes feces to become clay-colored.

Brown pigment gallstones

An analysis of two infants suffering from

cholelithiasis A gallstone is a stone formed within the gallbladder from precipitated bile components. The term cholelithiasis may refer to the presence of gallstones or to any disease caused by gallstones, and choledocholithiasis refers to the presence of migr ...

observed that a substantial amount of stercobilin was present in brown pigment gallstones. This study suggested that brown pigment gallstones could form spontaneously in infants suffering from bacterial infections of the biliary tract.

Role in treatment of disease

A 1996 study by McPhee et al. suggested that stercobilin and other related pyrrolic pigments — including urobilin, biliverdin, and xanthobilirubic acid — has potential to function as a new class of HIV-1

protease inhibitors Protease inhibitors (PIs) are medications that act by interfering with enzymes that cleave proteins. Some of the most well known are antiviral drugs widely used to treat HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. These protease inhibitors prevent viral replicat ...

when delivered at low micromolar concentrations. These pigments were selected due to a similarity in shape to the successful HIV-1 protease inhibitor

Merck Merck refers primarily to the German Merck family and three companies founded by the family, including: * the Merck Group, a German chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences company founded in 1668 ** Merck Serono (known as EMD Serono in the Unite ...

L-700,417 (N,N-Bis(2-hydroxy-1-indanyl)-2,6-diphenylmethyl-4-hydroxy-1,7-heptandiamide). Further research is suggested to study the pharmacological efficacy of these pigments.

References

{{tetrapyrroles Metabolism Digestive system Tetrapyrroles Gamma-lactams