PLS-DA analysis of TTGE profiles, according to F508del mutation.

<p>Panel A) On the left are reported representative TTGE profiles from homozygous-F508del (Hm), heterozygous-F508del (Ht) and non-F508del (N) patients. Simca-P+ software was used to compute weight coefficients for each TTGE band (87 <i>x</i> variables) on the three different sub-groups of CF patients (3 <i>y</i> variables, Hm-Ht-N), with a scaled and centred data set. These coefficients were useful to interpret the influence of the x variables on the y ones. A clustered image heatmap was generated with CIMminer online software (panel A, right). As depicted in the color-coded legend, the higher that the coefficient value is, the higher the weight (red), while the lower that the value is, the lower the weight (turquoise). Panel B) Faecal TTGE profiles of all 36 CF patients were analysed by PLS-DA, and the resulting 3D score plot model gave a significant separation between the three sub-groups: homozygous-F508del (Hm, red circles); heterozygous-F508del (Ht, black circles), and non-F508del (N, blue circles).