Xiao Pan, Hua Zhaolai, Kang Xiaoyu, Lu Bin, Li Meifeng, Wu Juan, Dong Wei, Zhang Junfeng, Cheng Chun
School of Medicine & Holistic Integrative Medicine, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing 210023, Jiangsu, China.
Yangzhong Cancer Institute, Yangzhong People's Hospital, Jiangsu Yangzhong 212200, China.
J Cancer. 2022 Jan 16;13(4):1168-1180. doi: 10.7150/jca.67068. eCollection 2022.
Esophageal cancer (EC) is a common digestive tract tumor in China, and oral intaking habit has a great influence on the development of EC. The present study explored the correlation between oral intaking habit and tongue coating (TC) microbiota in patients with esophageal precancerous lesions (EPL) to provide a reasonable interpretation of the influence of oral intaking habit on microbial alterations in the EPL. A case-control study was designed with 123 EPL patients and 176 volunteers with mild esophagitis, and they were well matched using sex, age, and body mass index. The TC microbiota was profiled using high-throughput sequencing of the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene, and the serum levels of total bile acid (TBA) and interleukin-17α (IL-17α) were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Alpha diversity, community structure, and linear discriminant analysis were conducted, and Spearman correlation analysis was used to build the symbiotic network. No significant differences were observed in the diversity and richness of the TC microbiota between the cases and controls ( > 0.05). TC and were enriched in EPL patients. Stratified analysis showed that TC microbial composition was affected by both EPL and oral intaking habit; for example, and were positively related to oral intaking habit scores in both the cases and controls, while was negatively correlated with oral intaking habit status in cases but positively correlated with oral intaking habit status in controls. Although serum TBA and IL-17α were not associated with EPL ( > 0.05), the daily-drinking cases had a higher level of serum TBA than the nondrinking cases ( < 0.05), and (Hp) negative controls had a higher level of serum TBA than the Hp-positive controls ( < 0.05). The symbiotic networks were comprised of 71 significant correlations in the controls and 52 significant correlations in the cases. The development of EPL changed the TC microbiota and decreased the symbiotic complexity of the TC bacteria, which were also influenced by the cancer-related oral intaking habit. Bile acid may be a key factor mediating changes in TC microbiota.
食管癌（EC）是中国常见的消化道肿瘤，饮食习惯对食管癌的发生发展有很大影响。本研究探讨食管上皮内瘤变（EPL）患者的饮食习惯与舌苔（TC）微生物群之间的相关性，以合理解释饮食习惯对EPL中微生物变化的影响。设计了一项病例对照研究，纳入123例EPL患者和176例轻度食管炎志愿者，并根据性别、年龄和体重指数进行了良好匹配。使用16S rRNA基因V3-V4区域的高通量测序对TC微生物群进行分析，并使用酶联免疫吸附测定法测量血清总胆汁酸（TBA）和白细胞介素-17α（IL-17α）水平。进行了α多样性、群落结构和线性判别分析，并使用Spearman相关性分析构建共生网络。病例组和对照组之间TC微生物群的多样性和丰富度无显著差异（>0.05）。EPL患者中TC和 丰度增加。分层分析表明，TC微生物组成受EPL和饮食习惯的影响；例如，病例组和对照组中 和 与饮食习惯评分呈正相关，而病例组中 与饮食习惯状态呈负相关，对照组中呈正相关。虽然血清TBA和IL-17α与EPL无关（>0.05），但每日饮酒的病例血清TBA水平高于不饮酒的病例（<0.05），幽门螺杆菌（Hp）阴性对照组血清TBA水平高于Hp阳性对照组（<0.05）。对照组的共生网络由71个显著相关性组成，病例组由52个显著相关性组成。EPL的发生改变了TC微生物群，降低了TC细菌的共生复杂性，这也受到与癌症相关的饮食习惯的影响。胆汁酸可能是介导TC微生物群变化的关键因素。
