ABSTRACT

Background The physical appearance of tongue coatings is vital for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to diagnose health and disease status. The microbiota of different tongue coatings could also influence coating formation and be further associated with specific diseases. Previous studies have focused on bacteria from different tongue coatings in the context of specific diseases, but the normal variations in healthy individuals remain unknown.Aim: We examined the tongue microbiota by metagenomics in 94 healthy individuals classified into eight different tongue types.Results: The overall composition of the tongue coating microbiome is not drastically different among different coating types, similar to the findings of previous studies in healthy populations. Further analysis revealed microbiota characteristics of each coating type, and many of the key bacteria are reported to be implicated in diseases. Moreover, further inclusion of diabetic patients revealed disease-specific enrichment of Capnocytophaga, even though the same tongue coatings were studied.Conclusions: This work revealed the characteristic compositions of distinctive tongue coatings in a healthy population, which serves as a basis for understanding the tongue coating formation mechanism and provides a valuable reference to further investigate disease-specific tongue coating bacterial markers.

摘要

背景舌苔的物理外观对于中医 (TCM) 诊断健康和疾病状态至关重要。不同舌苔的微生物群也可能影响舌苔的形成，并进一步与特定疾病有关。以前的研究集中在特定疾病背景下来自不同舌苔的细菌，但健康个体的正常变化仍然未知。目的：我们通过宏基因组学检查了 94 名分为八种不同舌头类型的健康个体的舌头微生物群。结果：舌苔微生物群的整体组成在不同的舌苔类型之间并没有显着差异，这与之前在健康人群中的研究结果相似。进一步的分析揭示了每种涂层类型的微生物群特征，据报道许多关键细菌与疾病有关。此外，即使研究了相同的舌苔，糖尿病患者的进一步纳入揭示了特定疾病的Capnocytophaga富集。结论： 这项工作揭示了健康人群中独特舌苔的特征成分，为了解舌苔形成机制奠定了基础，并为进一步研究疾病特异性舌苔细菌标志物提供了有价值的参考。