Butyrate-Producing Bacteria in Regulating Intestinal Motility: Potential and Challenges

Intestinal motility serves as a core component of digestive system function, and its rhythmic contractions and relaxations directly influence food digestion, nutrient absorption, and fecal excretion. Imbalanced intestinal motility readily precipitates various gastrointestinal disorders, including chronic constipation and irritable bowel syndrome, severely compromising quality of life. In recent years, investigations in gut microbiota have reported that butyrate-producing bacteria constitute a functional bacterial group capable of metabolizing dietary indigestible carbohydrates to synthesize butyrate. Through their metabolic product butyrate and multi-dimensional regulatory pathways, these bacteria play an indispensable role in maintaining intestinal motility homeostasis. This review provides an overview of the biological classification of butyrate-producing bacteria, mechanisms of butyrate production in the digestive tract, regulatory effects on intestinal motility, and recent application progress, as well as the current research status and intervention strategies in related diseases, aiming to elucidate the interaction mechanisms between butyrate-producing bacteria and intestinal motility, and to provide a theoretical basis for the prevention and treatment of intestinal motility disorders.