Violin plots of ME/CFS and healthy controls (HC) separated
into
males and females. (a) A violin plot of age distribution for 24 presumed
HC, (13 females and 11 males) and 38 ME/CFS patients (27 females and
11 males), separated by sex. The x-axis represents
the cohorts, and the y-axis represents age. Each
violin indicates the density of participants at different ages, with
individual ages shown as dots and median age as horizontal lines.
Both cohorts span a wide age range, with more participants in the
middle-age range, and show sex-specific distribution patterns. (b)
Presents violin plots showing the concentration distributions of various
metabolites for HC and ME/CFS patients, divided by sex. Each subplot
represents a different metabolite. Notably, phenylalanine and hypoxanthine
concentrations are significantly higher in ME/CFS patients, while
hydroxyanthranilic acid and hydroxykynurenine concentrations are lower
in ME/CFS patients compared to HC. (c) Presents violin plots displaying
the ratios of 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid to quinolinic acid (3HAA/QA),
3-hydroxykynurenine to 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3HK/3HAA), kynurenine
to 3-hydroxykynurenine (Kyn/3HK), kynurenine to kynurenic acid (Kyn/KA),
phenylalanine to tyrosine (Phe/Tyr), tryptophan to kynurenine (Trp/Kyn)
and tryptophan to serotonin (Trp/5-HT). Notably, the ratios of Kyn/3HK
and Trp/5-HT are higher in the ME/CFS cohort compared to HC. The x-axis shows the cohorts, and the y-axis
shows metabolite concentration (ng/mL) or ratio. Individual data points
are overlaid as dots, and horizontal lines indicate median concentrations.
The red star * represents (p < 0.05).