The balance

The triangle illustrates the three chemicals compounds chemical compound, cholesterol, bile salt and lecithin present in the gallbladder.

Normal bile concentrations are illustrated by the elliptical area. In area A (including the cross-hatching) cholesterol is completely soluble.
In the cross hatched area bile is called metastable. Under normal circumstances bile is expelled and replenish throughout the day and it stays liquid.

Metastable means that stones may start to form if specific crystal forming factors are present.

If the gallbladder gets lazy and/or the chemical concentration of the compounds move away from the elliptical area then he normal liquid state of the

bile changes.

There are three types of solid particles that can form in the bile. These are crystals, micelles and vesicles.

A micelles is formed when a variety of molecules including soaps and detergents are added to water. The molecule may be a fatty acid, a salt of a

fatty acid (soap), phospholipids, or other similar molecules. (A clump of fatty material)

A vesicle is a small, intracellular, membrane-enclosed sac. (a bag a high concentrated liquid within a lower concentration)

A crystal form in a super saturated solution. Small crystal below 2 mm are called sludge and larger crystals are called cholesterol gallstones.

If bile composition is within:
Area B - Crystal of cholesterol and micelles form.
Area C - Crystal of cholesterol, micelles and vesicle form.
Area D - Micelles and vesicle form.
Area E - Vesicle form.

It can be seen that bile has the potential to make a wide variety of different types of stones (for want of a better word) in the liver, ducts or

gallbladder. It can also be seen that bile falling within normal concentrations may under certain condition form stones, even true gallstones. Eg if

the bile isn't replenished regularly or the gallbladder doesn't contract properly. Tweet