Fig. 3.

COVID-19 patients show an altered hemoglobin metabolism. Mass spectrometric analysis of metabolic intermediates of both heme biosynthesis and degradation in plasma reduced whole blood samples of COVID-19 patients compared to healthy donors and convalescent patients. Relative expressions to the mean value of healthy donors are shown. a Hydroxymethylbilane, b Uroporphyrinogen III, c Uroporphyrin, d Coproporphyrinogen III, e Coproporphyrin I, f Coproporphyrin III, g Protoporphyrinogen IX, h Protoporphyrin IX, i Fe-Heme, j heme-CO₂, k Zinc- Protoporphyrin IX, l N-Methyl-Protoporphyrin, m Heme-CO, n Bilirubin, o Ratio Bilirubin/Fe-Heme, p total porphyrin. n = 5 independent donors per group. Boxes with Min and Max are shown. Tests were performed two-sided. * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, Mann-Whitney U test