Variations of Tongue Coating Microbiota in Patients with Gastric CancerOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Researchers compared tongue coating appearance and tongue microbiota between 74 gastric cancer patients and 72 healthy controls. They tested whether tongue coating thickness reflects underlying microbial differences relevant to gastric cancer.
How was it studied?
Tongue coating thickness was measured with a tongue manifestation acquisition instrument. The V2 to V4 region of 16S rDNA was sequenced from tongue swabs of 34 patients and 17 healthy controls after quality filtering.
What did they find?
Gastric cancer patients had significantly thicker tongue coatings than controls, 343.11 versus 98.42 on the instrument scale, with 51.35 percent classified as thick coatings. Thick coatings showed lower microbial diversity than thin coatings by ACE, Chao and Shannon indices. At the phylum level, Proteobacteria relative abundance was lower in patients than controls, 10.85 percent versus 28.55 percent, while Actinobacteria was higher, 12.32 percent versus 4.46 percent.
Why it matters
The findings suggest tongue coating microbiota tracks gastric cancer status and could support tongue diagnosis as a noninvasive screening aid. The authors note nearly half of patients still had thin coatings, so sensitivity needs improvement before clinical use.