Plasma Fatty Acid Profiling and Mathematical Estimation of the Omega-3 Index: Toward Diagnostic Tools in Atherosclerosis and Statin Therapy Monitoring

Figures

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  Figure 2. Biosynthesis pathway of SFA and MUFA with graph data of fatty acid composition in the plasma of the control and atherosclerosis (AS) group. 1—Palmitic acid (C16:0) % content; 2—C16:0/C18:0 ratio; 3—Stearic acid (C18:0) % content; 4—C18:0/20:0 ratio; 5—C20:0/22:0 ratio; 6—C18:0/C18:1n-9 ratio; 7—Oleic acid (C18:1n-9) % content; 8—Gondoic acid (C20:1n-9) % content. Statistically significant differences are indicated by ** (p < 0.01), and *** (p < 0.001), which were evaluated by an appropriate test. The enzyme nomenclature and metabolic scheme presented are based on previously published data [24,25,26,27,28,29]. FAs determined by the applied HPLC-MS/MS method are highlighted in bold. The other FAs involved in metabolism are written in italics. Fatty acid contents are expressed as percentages of the total identified fatty acids (%), whereas all fatty acid ratios (e.g., C16:0/C18:0) are reported as dimensionless numbers. The boxplots of parameters for stearic acid (C18:0) and oleic acid (C18:1n-9) indicate the mean ± SD. The other parameters’ boxplots are the median and [IQR 25–75%].

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  Figure 1. Comparative plasma levels of major fatty acid classes in healthy individuals (Control) and atherosclerosis patients (AS). The asterisks indicate that there are statistically significant differences versus the control group p-value < 0.05 (*), < 0.01 (**), and < 0.001 (***). All values in the figure are expressed as percentages (%). The boxplots of parameters TFA and HUFA indicate the median and [IQR 25–75%]. The lines inside the boxplots of other parameters indicate the mean ± SD.

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  Figure 3. Biosynthetic pathway of omega-3 and omega-6 with graphical data of fatty acid composition in plasma of control and atherosclerosis (AS) group. 1—C18:3n-6/C20:3n-6 ratio; 2—arachidonic acid (C20:4n-6) % content; 3—C20:4n-6/C22:4n-6 ratio; 4—EPA % content; 5—EPA/DPA ratio. Statistically significant differences are indicated by * (p < 0.05), ** (p < 0.01) and *** (p < 0.001), which were evaluated by an appropriate test. Enzyme names and the metabolic pathway diagram are adapted from literature sources as cited [34,35]. FAs determined by the applied HPLC-MS/MS method are highlighted in bold. The other FAs involved in metabolism are written in italics. Fatty acid contents are expressed as percentages of the total identified fatty acids (%), whereas all fatty acid ratios (e.g., EPA/DHA) are reported as dimensionless numbers. All the boxplots indicate the median and [IQR 25–75%].

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  Figure 4. Differences in fatty acid content in the plasma of control and atherosclerosis group with (Statin+) or without statin therapy (Statin−). Statistically significant differences are indicated by ** (p < 0.01), evaluated by the Kruskal–Wallis test. AA content is expressed as a percentage of the total identified fatty acids (%), whereas AA/APE ratio is reported as dimensionless numbers. All the boxplots indicate the median and [IQR 25–75%].

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  Figure 5. Linear regression (left) and logit-transformed regression (right) of EPA + DHA (%) between plasma and erythrocyte fractions (total lipids fraction). The logit transformation is defined as logit(y) = log (y/(100% − y)). The light gray area represents 95% prediction bands; the dark gray area represents 95% confidence bands (α = 0.05).