Effects of multiple tongue conditions on the diversity and composition of the oral microbiota
Masakazu Hamada, Yuriko Matsuoka, Yuko Ogaya, Tamami Kadota, Shunya Ikeda, Tatsuya Akitomo, Ryota Nomura, Kazuhiko Nakano · 2026
Read Effects of multiple tongue conditions on the diversity and composition of the oral microbiota by Masakazu Hamada, Yuriko Matsuoka, Yuko Ogaya, Tamami Kadota, Shunya Ikeda, Tatsuya Akitomo, Ryota Nomura, Kazuhiko Nakano (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13244507.txt.
Description
Masakazu Hamada and colleagues asked whether the look of a person's tongue predicts the microbes living in their mouth. Their study appeared in the Journal of Oral Microbiology in 2026. Ninety-three volunteers were grouped by tongue features from traditional exams: yellow coating, redness, fissures, swelling, geographic patterns, and tooth marks. Saliva and surface samples then went through diversity and composition analysis.
One feature stood out. People with fissured tongues carried less diverse oral communities, with more Firmicutes and sulfur-processing bacteria. Much of that signal faded once age was taken into account, since fissures and microbial shifts both grow with age. In age-restricted comparisons, two bacterial genera stayed lower in fissured-tongue saliva, an age-independent signature. The authors suggest tongue appearance could become a cheap, noninvasive marker of oral imbalance. Dentists already look at tongues; this study asks what else the look is telling them.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Masakazu Hamada, Yuriko Matsuoka, Yuko Ogaya, Tamami Kadota, Shunya Ikeda, Tatsuya Akitomo, Ryota Nomura, Kazuhiko Nakano |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 35 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |