Fig. 1.

Metabolic impact on plasma and RBCs of taurine-rich beverage. Metabolomics analyses were performed on plasma and RBCs from four healthy donor volunteers at baseline and 1 hour upon consumption of a commercially available, taurine-rich popular beverage (A). PLS-DA (B), hierarchical clustering analysis (C), and volcano plot (D) showed distinct metabolic phenotypes between subject-matched plasma and RBC samples after consumption of the “energy drink.” Vectorial versions of the heat maps in C are provided as Figs. S1 and S2. Data are plotted as a volcano plot (combining plasma and RBC measurements) in D. Metabolites levels (y axis represents arbitrary units [AU]) affected included taurine in plasma (E) and RBCs (F), as well as metabolic pathways involved in redox homeostasis and oxidation products such as reduced GSH and hypoxanthine, respectively.