FIGURE 6.

Conjugated bile acids linked to circulatory immune markers and enhanced hepatic inflammation. (A) Correlations of serum BA grouped by conjugation with serum markers of macrophage activation, gut barrier dysfunction, dysbiosis, inflammation, and vascular injury in HCVi. Cells colored blue or orange for Spearman correlation coefficient when unadjusted p < 0.05 (n = 29). Exact p values in Supplemental Table S3, http://links.lww.com/HC9/A975. (B) Hepatic NLRP3 inflammasome genes in HCVi compared to SVR. Two-sided Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test (n = 22). Column bar graph, median with IQR. FDRp value + =0.05–0.1, *0.05–0.01, **0.01–0.001, ***0.001–0.0001, ****< 0.0001. (C) Correlation heatmap of hepatic NLRP3 pathway genes (y axis) with portal and peripheral grouped BA (x axis), 2-sided Spearman correlation (n = 27). unadjusted p value + =0.05–0.1, *0.05–0.01, **0.01–0.001, ***0.001–0.0001, ****< 0.0001. Abbreviations: BA, bile acid; HCVi, patients infected with HCV; NLRP3, NLR family pyrin domain-containing 3 inflammasome; SVR, sustained virologic response;