FIG 3.

Short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) cluster analysis. (A) Principal-coordinate analysis (PCoA; the first two principal components are shown); clustering was based on the fecal concentrations of acetate, butyrate, and propionate using JSD distance and the Partitioning around Medoids (PAM) algorithm. (B) Tukey box plots representing the proportion of main fecal SCFAs in groups H (displaying higher concentrations of SCFAs) and L (lower SCFA concentrations). (C) Tukey box plots of the ratios between the three main fecal SCFAs in groups H and L. (D) Tukey box plots representing the effect of the probiotic and placebo intervention on butyrate levels in SCFA groups H and L. Asterisks are according to the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test (with paired data, when possible) with Benjamini-Hochberg correction to determine statistically significant differences between groups (B to D) and before and after the probiotic treatment (D). *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ***, P < 0.001; n.s., no significant difference.