The Correlation Analysis Between The Tongue Coating And The Levels Of Serum Inflammatory Cytokines In The Patients With Gastric Cancer

Objective:Using the correlation analysis of the tongue coating and 20 inflammatory cytokines and then explore the relationship between tongue coating formation and inflammation in patients with gastric cancer(GC).Methods:This hospital-based case-control study included 142 patients with GC and 98 healthy controls.MSD(Meso Scale Discovery)kits are used to measure serum levels of 20 inflammatory cytokines.The difference analysis,correlation analysis and ROC analysis are performed using SPSS 21.0 software,cluster analysis is performed using R software.Results:(1)Comparison of the GC group and the control group,the distribution of coating colors have significant difference(P<0.05);The occurrence of GC is significantly correlated with often eating fried food,less eat fresh fruits,often smoking,and often drinking(P<0.05).(2)Except for IL-16,IL-4 and IL-13,there are 17 kinds of inflammatory cytokines(GM-CSM,IL-1?,IL-5,IL-7,IL-12/IL-23p40,IL-15,IL-17?,TNF-?,VEGF,IFN-?,IL-1?,IL-2,IL-6,IL-8,IL-10,IL-12p70 and TNF-?)show significant differences between the GC group and the control group(P<0.05).(3)Gender is related to serum inflammatory cytokines.In GC group,IL-16,IL-1? and IL-8 levels of male show higher than that in female's(P<0.05),TNF-? and IFN-? levels of male show significant lower than that in female's(P<0.05);in control group,IL-5,IL-17? and IL-4 levels of male show higher than that in female's(P<0.05),IL-12/IL-23p40 and TNF-? levels of male show significant lower than that in female's(P<0.05).(4)Clinical treatment affects the level of serum inflammatory cytokines in GC group.Chemotherapy and operation does not affect the type distribution of tongue coating(P>0.05);IL-7 and VEGF levels of chemotherapy group show lower than non-chemotherapy group(P<0.05),and IL-16,VEGF and IL-10 levels of operation group show lower than non-operation group(P>0.05).(5)Dietary habits affect serum levels of inflammatory cytokines,there are significant differences in the levels of cytokines among different living habits(P<0.05).(6)Yellow tongue coating correlated with higher serum IL-17? levels in GC patients(P<0.05),and this phenomenon could reproduced in the controls(P<0.05).Receiver operating characteristics(ROC)analysis shows the cutoff values of IL-17?are 6.033 pg/ml and 3.507 pg/ml in GC patients and controls,respectively.(7)Correlation analysis shows that in GC group,there are 57 pairs of positive correlated serum cytokines and 2 pairs of negative correlated serum cytokines in the individuals with white coating,and there are only 40 pairs of positive correlated serum cytokines in the individuals with yellow coating.Similarly regarding to the controls,there are 51 pairs of positive correlated serum cytokines and 3 pairs of negative correlated serum cytokines in the individuals with white coating,and there are 57 pairs of positive correlated serum cytokines and 4 pairs of negative correlatedserum cytokines in the individuals with yellow coating.Cluster analysis shows that the clustering of inflammatory cytokines in the same tongue coating between healthy controls and gastric cancer patients is similar.Conclusions:In the GC group and the control group,the yellow and white tongue coating may reflect contrary inflammatory status via different serum interleukin-17? levels.In addition,the opposite type of tongue coating may reflect the opposite inflammatory state.