Butyrate's role in human health and the current progress towards its clinical application to treat gastrointestinal disease.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review of mechanisms, preclinical models, and clinical translation without original data or systematic review methodology.
PubMed 36502573 · doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2022.10.024
What was done
This narrative review summarizes molecular mechanisms of butyrate action in the gastrointestinal tract, including its roles as a colonocyte energy source, histone deacetylase inhibitor, and G-protein coupled receptor signaling molecule, alongside preclinical findings and translational efforts in human gastrointestinal diseases.
What was found
The abstract provides no quantitative data. It reports that butyrate supports colonocyte function, decreases inflammation, maintains gut barrier integrity, and shows protective actions in animal models of inflammatory bowel disease, gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease, and colon cancer. However, human clinical interventions aimed at raising butyrate levels have produced mixed results.
Why it matters
It highlights the translational gap between robust preclinical and mechanistic evidence for butyrate-mediated gut protection and the inconsistent outcomes observed in clinical application.
Limits
The abstract describes a narrative review without systematic search or quantitative synthesis. No primary clinical trial data, sample sizes, intervention types, or specific effect sizes are reported in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports Dietary fiber is fermented by the gut microbiota into butyrate, which fuels and provides energy to colonocytes.