Dietary sodium butyrate suppresses abdominal fat deposition by improving cecal microbiota and metabolomics in...

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of fat deposition is crucial for improving meat production and feed efficiency in chickens. This study aims to investigate how sodium butyrate suppresses excessive fat deposition. An obese chicken model was established using a high-fat diet (HFD), followed by sodium butyrate supplementation to assess its inhibitory effects on fat deposition. Cecal microbiota and metabolomics were analyzed via 16S rDNA sequencing and non-targeted metabolomics to explore the possible mechanism of sodium butyrate in inhibiting the excessive deposition of fat in chickens. The results indicated that sodium butyrate supplementation significantly reduced excessive fat deposition induced by HFD. 16S rDNA sequencing revealed that sodium butyrate increased the abundance of beneficial genera including Bacteroides, Clostridiales unclassified, Ruminococcaceae unclassified, and Clostridia UCG-014. Metabolomic analysis indicated that sodium butyrate upregulated myo‑inositol and downregulated arachidonic acid, and the sphingolipid metabolism pathway was significantly downregulated. Correlation network analysis showed that Bacteroides abundance was positively correlated with myo‑inositol and negatively correlated with arachidonic acid. These findings suggest that dietary sodium butyrate attenuates HFD‑induced abdominal fat deposition in chickens, partially via the cecal microbiota‑metabolite axis involving specific bacterial genera and key metabolites.