Figure 5.

Correlations between sterol intermediate and CHOL levels in pregnant women sera. (A) 7-DHC vs CHOL (B) DES vs CHOL, and (C) LAN vs CHOL. (D) Correlation between 7-DHC and CHOL in 43 samples where 7-DHC-elevating medications were detected. All sterol levels are reported as ng/μL of serum. Each symbol denotes an individual sample. Pearson coefficient (R²) and two-tailed p values were determined using GraphPad Prism 9. Note that all three sterol intermediates significantly correlated with CHOL across all studied samples (A–C). However, for the 43 samples containing 7-DHC-elevating medications, we found no correlation between 7-DHC and CHOL levels, suggesting that CHOL levels are not the ideal readout of sterol biosynthesis disruptions.