Fig. 1
Metabolite bioprofiling facilitates discrimination of advanced HCV fibrosis (F3–4). a Illustrates the relative decrease in concentration of creatine in HCV carrier with F4 fibrosis (cirrhosis) in comparison with a HCV carrier with Stage 1 (F1) liver fibrosis in the NMR spectra. b Represents the coefficient plot from the OPLS-DA analysis showing differences in serum metabolite concentration in the patients with HCV fibrosis (F3–4). C Shows OPLS-DA score plots of serum samples from HCV patients with fibrosis. Each data point is representative of the complete metabolite measurement from one HCV patient: blue square Stage 0–2, red square Stage 3–4. The x and y-axis represent the latent variable 1 and orthogonal component 2 respectively. R2 is the explained variance; Q2 is the predictive ability of the model; Model significance was assessed using a cross-validated ANOVA based on seven-fold cross validation (R2 = 0.673, Q2 = 0.285, p = 0.008). Biochemical pathways involved in HCV advanced fibrosis (F3–4). d Illustrates the metabolites that have been relatively decreased in the fibrosis group. e Indicates the biochemical pathways involved in fibrosis model; higher intensity with a higher association with the fibrotic group. f Represents the metabolites which have been relatively increased in the fibrotic group