Figure 3.

Association between platelet lipidome alterations, sepsis-associated thrombocytopenia, and sepsis severity. (A) Volcano plots of the 224 annotated platelet-specific lipids comparing septic shock patients and controls. The left panel shows septic shock patients with thrombocytopenia (platelet count <150,000/μL), and the right panel shows patients without thrombocytopenia (platelet count ≥150,000/μL). The X-axis represents the Log₂ fold change (sepsis vs controls) in mass spectrometry signal intensity for each lipid species, and the Y-axis the –Log₁₀-adjusted P values. Each dot represents a lipid species, colored according to the categories defined in Figure 1A. (B) Scatter plots showing the correlation between lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) levels and sepsis severity, assessed by the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score. For each LPC species, the Y-axis represents the Log of semiquantitative lipid abundances (arbitrary unit [AU]). The X-axis displays the SOFA score. Each dot represents a patient, with gray indicating control patients and black representing septic shock patients. The strength of the correlation between LPC levels and SOFA scores in septic shock patients is indicated by Pearson correlation coefficient (R). Controls are displayed for visual comparison but were not included in the correlation analysis since their SOFA score was zero.