Objective To investigate the associated protein markers in tongue coating of chronic gastritis patients.Methods The tongue coating was taken from 100 chronic gastritis patients and 38 healthy persons.The patients were divided to the greasy tongue coating group（50 cases） and non-greasy tongue coating group（50 cases also）

and the greasy tongue coating group were further grouped into the white-greasy tongue coating group（17 cases） and the yellow-greasy tongue coating group（33 cases）.Surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry（SELDI-TOF-MS） technique was applied for proteomic study on the tongue coatings.Results Within the range of 1000 to 20000 M/Z

there were 69 different protein peaks identified between the greasy tongue coating group and the control group（P<0.01）.Between the non-greasy tongue coating group and the control group

63 different protein peaks were identified（P<0.01）.Between the greasy tongue coating group and non-greasy tongue coating group

4 different protein peaks were identified（P<0.01）.Between the white-greasy tongue coating group and the control group

52 different protein peaks were identified（P<0.01）.Between the yellow-greasy tongue coating group and the control group

62 different protein peaks were identified（P<0.01）.Between the white-greasy tongue coating group and yellow-greasy tongue coating group

2 different protein peaks were identified（P<0.01）.Conclusion The research screens the protein markers in greasy tongue coating of chronic gastritis patients and provides experimental evidence for the tongue diagnosis study of chronic gastritis.