Sodium Butyrate

Description

Sodium butyrate—more properly sodium butanoate—is a salt of butyric (butanoic) acid. If it comes into contact with even a trace of moisture, it emits a faint odor of its foul-smelling conjugate acid.
The butyrate ion, along with the analogous propionate ion, is purported to enhance gut health in humans and many other animal species. But you don’t have to take it as a supplement. Bacteria in the gut produce butyrate from dietary fiber, especially the fiber from legumes and nuts.
Two recent reports illustrate the benefits of butyrate. Yanfen Bai and Thomas J. Mansell* at Iowa State University (Ames) wrote, “The short-chain fatty acid [anion] butyrate plays critical roles in human gut health, affecting immunomodulation, cell differentiation, and apoptosis, while also serving as the preferred carbon source for colon cells.” To assist in studies of butyrate for therapeutic applications, the researchers developed a high-throughput biosensor that responds to intracellular concentrations.
In another account, Sanne Verhoog at the University of Bern (Switzerland) and collaborators there and at other institutions in Switzerland, Turkey, Germany, and the United States reviewed 29 studies about how dietary factors influence the populations of two beneficial gut bacteria, Akkermansia muciniphila (11 studies) and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii (25 studies). The studies involved a total of 1444 participants. Supplementation with several substances, including sodium butyrate, increased the abundance of A. muciniphila, whereas diets low in fermentable saccharides that produce butyrate lowered the quantity of the bacterium. (Butyrate was not considered in the case of F. prausnitzii.)

Chemical properties

Sodium butyrate is a white crystalline solid with an unpleasant smell that occurs in butter and animal fat as the glycerol ester. It is the sodium salt of butyric acid. It has various effects on cultured mammalian cells including inhibition of proliferation, induction of differentiation and induction or repression of gene expre.

The Uses of Sodium Butyrate

Sodium Butyrate is an inhibitor of histone deacetylase activity (HDAC) resulting in improvement of physiological disorders such as Duchenne muscular dystropy. In addition it is a possible antitumor agent when used in conjunction with other cytotoxic agents as they have been shown to treat carcinomas.

The Uses of Sodium Butyrate

Sodium butyrate has been used:
as a component in homogenization and immunoprecipitation buffer for HDAC inhibition in fly embryos and insect s2 cells.
as histone deacetylase inhibitor in breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231, analysed by cell viability assay and viral replication assay.
to enhance the production of recombinant tissue-plasminogen activator (t-PA) in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells in a bioreactor.

Definition

ChEBI: Sodium butyrate is an organic sodium salt resulting from the replacement of the proton from the carboxy group of butyric acid by a sodium ion. It has a role as an EC 3.5.1.98 (histone deacetylase) inhibitor and a geroprotector. It contains a butyrate.

What are the applications of Application

Sodium Butyrate is an HDAC inhibitor, apoptosis inducer and can induce differentiation and gene expression and also prevent cell proliferation

Benefits

Sodium butyrate, a butyrate, is used in supplements. The benefits of butyrate begin in the gut and extend to a host of other important body systems. It could fuel the gut lining, support healthy gut permeability. promote a healthy inflammation response in the gut, may fight colonic diseases and cancers, promote healthy blood sugar levels, supports normal proliferation of healthy yeast levels, promote cell differentiation, regulate the immune system , combat brain fog and improve sleep, and supports healthy blood pressure levels.

Biological Activity

Histone deacetylase inhibitor. Restores contextual memory in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Shown to induce pancreatic progenitor formation. Directs the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells into hepatocytes when used in combination with the cytokine Activin A.

Biochem/physiol Actions

Sodium butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that inhibits histone deacetylase (HDAC) in the millimolar range. Decreases Ca2+ release from intracellular stores. Induces apoptosis in several cell lines. Sodium butyrate induces the production of recombinant protein in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and other human cell lines. Sodium butyrate affects the proteome and gene expression pathways in the cells. It represses cell cycle related genes and modifies the genes involved in cell metabolism and apoptosis.

storage

Room temperature

Purification Methods

Sodium butyrate [156-54-7] M 110.1. Prepare it by neutralising the acid with Na2CO3, and recrystallising it from EtOH. [Beilstein 2 IV 779.]