Figure 1. Workflow used to identify differentially expressed proteoforms (DEPs) in patients with cirrhosis.

A) Plasma was extracted from cirrhosis patients with three stages of disease— compensated (I), compensated with portal hypertension (II), and decompensated cirrhosis (III). 30kDa fractions of plasma were then subjected to Top-Down Proteomics (TDP) to identify DEPs across disease stages. B-D) Volcano plots showing differentially expressed proteoforms (DEPs) in the plasma from patients with B) decompensated cirrhosis (III) vs compensated cirrhosis with portal hypertension (II), C) decompensated cirrhosis (III) vs compensated cirrhosis (I), and D) compensated cirrhosis with portal hypertension (II) vs compensated cirrhosis (I). A false discovery rate (FDR) threshold of 5% for differential expression was used.