The Clinical Medical College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China.
Department of Obesity, Hubei Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wuhan, China.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Jun 29;12:787143. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.787143. eCollection 2022.
The objective of this study was to identify the biological correlation between the tongue coating color and oral and gut micro-characteristics in metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) patients.
The characteristics of the tongue coating were examined using an automatic tongue diagnosis system. Tongue coating and stool samples were collected from 38 MAFLD patients, and 16S rDNA full-length assembly sequencing technology (16S-FAST) was used for bioinformatic analysis.
Twenty-two and 16 subjects were included in two distinct clusters according to the white/yellow color of the tongue coating, which was assessed by the values of the image. Upon analyzing the microorganisms in the tongue coating, 66 and 62 pathognomonic bacterial genera were found in the White and Yellow Coating Groups, respectively. The abundance of positively correlated with the values of the tongue coating in the White Coating Group, while , , and abundance was significantly correlated with the values in the Yellow Coating Group. Function prediction mainly showed the involvement of protein families related to BRITE hierarchies and metabolism. The MHR (MONO%/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) of the Yellow Coating Group was higher than that of the White Coating Group.
In MAFLD patients, lower values and higher values are indicators of a yellow tongue coating. There were also significant differences in the flora of different tongue coatings, with corresponding changes in the intestinal flora, indicating a correlation between carbohydrate metabolism disorders and inflammation in the oral microbiome.
本研究旨在探讨代谢相关脂肪性肝病（MAFLD）患者舌象特征与口腔及肠道微特征的生物学相关性。
采用自动舌诊系统对舌象特征进行检测，收集 38 例 MAFLD 患者的舌象和粪便标本，采用 16S rDNA 全长序列测序技术（16S-FAST）进行生物信息学分析。
根据图像的 值，将 22 例和 16 例患者分为舌苔白和舌苔黄两个明显不同的聚类。在舌苔微生物分析中，舌苔白组和舌苔黄组分别发现了 66 种和 62 种特征性细菌属。 在舌苔白组中， 值与舌苔的 值呈正相关，而在舌苔黄组中， 、 、 和 的丰度与舌苔的 值呈显著相关。功能预测主要显示与 BRITE 层次结构和代谢相关的蛋白质家族的参与。舌苔黄组的 MHR（MONO%/高密度脂蛋白胆固醇）高于舌苔白组。
在 MAFLD 患者中， 值越低、 值越高是黄苔的指标。不同舌苔的菌群也存在显著差异，相应的肠道菌群也发生了变化，提示口腔微生物群中存在碳水化合物代谢紊乱和炎症的相关性。
