As the terminal metabolites in cholesterol catabolism, bile acids function as biological surfactants for lipid and nutrient solubilization while simultaneously serving as regulatory molecules in metabolic pathways. And have long been believed to be synthesized exclusively in the liver. Although recent studies have detected the existence of bile acids in mammalian ovarian follicular fluid, their precise origins and the mechanisms underlying their synthesis and secretion remain unclear. In this study, the pathways of bile acid synthesis and secretion were identified in sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus) ovarian cells cultured in vitro. Transcriptome analysis revealed significant changes in the expression of genes responsible for bile acid synthesis and secretion during cell proliferation. Furthermore, primary bile acids were found to be markedly increased in the culture medium of ovarian cells, while initial cholesterol metabolites were significantly reduced. Targeted metabolomics further identified significant variations in six bile acid species within cell culture supernatants. Therefore, based on the experimental results, we proposed a novel finding that in vitro cultured sterlet ovarian cells possessed the capacity for bile acids synthesis and secretion.

bile acids, ovarian cells, sterlet