ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the characteristics of cell apoptosis in patients of chronic gastritis with different tongue pictures and its mechanism of formation.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The tongue picture, apoptosis index (AI) of lingual epithelial cells, apoptosis related gene proteins, such as p53, Bcl-2 and Fas in 109 patients of chronic superficial gastritis were observed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>AI was different in patients with different tongue proper and tongue coating, those with pale white tongue and white thick coating had the maximum value of AI. (2) The p53, Bcl-2 and Fas expression positive rates in patients with different tongue pictures had corresponding changes, which were related not only with color of tongue, but also with color and thickness of tongue coating.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The formation of tongue picture is closely related with cell apoptosis, p53, Bcl-2 and Fas take part in the regulation of cell apoptosis, which constitute together the cytologic basis of tongue picture in the disease.</p>