bilirubin, a brownish yellow pigment of bile, secreted by the liver in vertebrates, which gives to solid waste products (feces) their characteristic colour. It is produced in bone marrow cells and in the liver as the end product of red-blood-cell (hemoglobin) breakdown. The amount of bilirubin manufactured relates directly to the quantity of blood cells destroyed. About 0.5 to 2 grams are produced daily. It has no known function and can be toxic to the fetal brain.
Bilirubin in the bloodstream is usually in a free, or unconjugated, state; it is attached to albumin, a protein, as it is transported. Once in the liver it conjugates with glucuronic acid made from the sugar glucose. It is then concentrated to about 1,000 times the strength found in blood plasma. Much bilirubin leaves the liver and passes to the gallbladder, where it is further concentrated and mixed with the other constituents of bile. Bile stones can originate from bilirubin, and certain bacteria can infect the gallbladder and change the conjugated bilirubin back to free bilirubin and acid. The calcium from the freed bilirubin can settle out as pigment stones, which may eventually block the passageway (common bile duct) between the liver, gallbladder, and small intestine. When blockage occurs, conjugated bilirubin is absorbed into the bloodstream, and the skin becomes yellow in colour (see jaundice).
Normally, conjugated bilirubin passes from the gallbladder or liver into the intestine. There, it is reduced by bacteria to mesobilirubinogen and urobilinogen. Some urobilinogen is reabsorbed back into the blood; the rest goes back to the liver or is excreted from the body in urine and fecal matter. In humans, bilirubin is believed to be unconjugated until it reaches the liver. In dogs, sheep, and rats, there is no bilirubin in the blood, though it is present in the liver.