Figure 6.

Altered serum levels of oxidative stress markers in patients with chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD); a comparison of patients with and without cGVHD and including all 51 patients. [(A), upper part] We observed increased levels of seven metabolites classified as oxidative stress markers in cGVHD patients (red boxes) compared with patients without cGVHD (green boxes). All results are presented as the median, the 25%/75% percentiles and the variation range. The metabolites and the corresponding p-values (Mann–Whitney U-test) are shown at the top of each individual figure. [(B), lower part] We performed a hierarchical clustering analysis based on the 10 metabolites belonging to the group oxidative stress. The clinical characteristics of each individual patient are presented in the upper part of the figure; for the lower horizontal bars the presence of a factor is indicated by red and the absence by green, whereas the color codes for the upper horizontal bars are explained in the figure. Two main clusters could then be identified; one with generally high metabolite levels and another with generally low levels. The cluster characterized by generally high levels had a significantly higher frequency of patients with cGVHD (25 out of 32 cGVHD patients; p = 0.0010, Chi-square test).