Key metabolic imbalances in SLE affecting carbohydrate, lipid or amino acid metabolism.

<p>The sera of 20 SLE patients and 9 healthy controls were comprehensively scanned for differences in small molecules using LC/MS and GC/MS platforms, referred to as the “metabolomic scan”. Shown are the mean metabolite levels of 3 glycolytic intermediates (A–C), three Kreb’s cycle intermediates (D–F), and two products of fatty acid β-oxidation (G–H). Open bars = healthy controls; closed bars = SLE patients. (*,P<0.05; **,P<0.01; ***,P<0.001). Plotted in (I) is a heatmap of serum amino acid levels in healthy subjects (first 9 columns) versus SLE patients (rightmost 20 columns), as determined by the metabolomic scan described above. Red = elevated; green = reduced, relative to the mean levels of the metabolite within the 29 study subjects. The actual mean levels of the metabolites are listed in Supplementary <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0037210#pone.0037210.s002" target="_blank">Table S1</a>.