Journal Article

Fermented Dairy Products as Precision Modulators of Gut Microbiota and Host Health: Mechanistic Insights, Clinical Evidence, and Future Directions

Gao, Yuan, Nie, Hui, Sun, Junqi, Song, Yinglong, Liang, Qimeng, Liu, Yanyan, Mu, Guangqing, Huang, Jun, Ma, Tingting, Wu, Xiaomeng

2025

Overview

Dairy products—encompassing yogurt, kefir, cheese, and cultured milk beverages—are emerging as versatile, food-based modulators of gut microbiota and host physiology. This review synthesizes mechanistic insights demonstrating how live starter cultures and their fermentation-derived metabolites (short-chain fatty acids, bioactive peptides, and exopolysaccharides) act synergistically to enhance microbial diversity, reinforce epithelial barrier integrity via upregulation of tight-junction proteins, and modulate immune signaling. Clinical evidence supports significant improvements in metabolic parameters (fasting glucose, lipid profiles, blood pressure) and reductions in systemic inflammation across metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and IBS cohorts. We highlight critical modulatory factors—including strain specificity, host enterotypes and FUT2 genotype, fermentation parameters, and matrix composition—that govern probiotic engraftment, postbiotic yield, and therapeutic efficacy. Despite promising short-term outcomes, current studies are limited by heterogeneous designs and brief intervention periods, underscoring the need for long-term, adaptive trials and integrative multi-omics to establish durability and causality. Looking forward, precision nutrition frameworks that harness baseline microbiota profiling, host genetics, and data-driven fermentation design will enable bespoke fermented dairy formulations, transforming these traditional foods into next-generation functional matrices for targeted prevention and management of metabolic, inflammatory, and neuroimmune disorders.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: Amino acids / Antimicrobial agents / B cells / Bacteria / Beverages / Bile / Blood pressure / Carbohydrates / Clinical trials / Contamination / Dairy industry / Dairy products / Dextrose / Disease / E coli / Enzymes / Exopolysaccharides / Fatty acids / Fermentation / fermented dairy products / Fermented milk products / Genetics / Genotypes / Glucose / Glucose metabolism / gut microbiota modulation / host–microbiome interactions / Hypertension / Inflammation / Inflammatory bowel disease / Intestinal microflora / Irritable bowel syndrome / Kefir / Lipids / Marketing research / Metabolic disorders / Metabolic syndrome / Metabolism / Metabolites / Microbiota / Microbiota (Symbiotic organisms) / Microorganisms / Milk / Modulators / Neuromodulation / Nutrition / Parameters / Pathogens / Peptides / Pharmaceuticals / Physiological aspects / postbiotics / precision nutrition / Probiotics / Product introduction / Proteins / Review / Salmonella / Starter cultures / Traditional foods / Tumor necrosis factor-TNF / Type 2 diabetes / Yogurt