title: Differences in metabolites of different tongue coatings in patients with chronic hepatitis B.
abstract: Tongue coating is one of the important foundations of tongue diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and plays an important role in reflecting the occurrence, development, and prognosis of the disease. However, its material basis is still poorly understood. In this study, a urinary metabonomic method based on gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS) was developed. The distinct clustering in metabolic profile was observed from Group A (thick yellow coating in patients with chronic hepatitis B), Group B (thick white coating in patients with chronic hepatitis B), and Group C (thin white coating with healthy humans) using orthogonal projections to latent structures (OPLS). Based on the variable of importance in the project (VIP) values, some significantly changed metabolites have been identified. These changes were related to the disturbance in energy metabolism, amino acid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, and gut microflora, which were helpful to understand the material basis leading to the formation of tongue coating. This study demonstrated that tongue coating may have an objective material basis.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Liver Disease, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 258 Zhangheng Road, Pudong District, Shanghai 201203, China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Xiao-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Gou
authors.forename: Jian-Ye
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Jing-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Shu-Jun
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Hui-Juan
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Ning-Ning
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Jun-Wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Shi-Bing
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yi-Yang
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Yong-Yu
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Zhang