Serum metabolites in non-alcoholic fatty-liver disease development or reversion; a targeted metabolomic approach within the PREDIMED trial

Table 4 Comparison of metabolites concentrations and enzyme activities based on fatty acid ratios between the final and the baseline status (Final vs. Baseline) in group 2 (not meeting the NAFLD criteria at baseline but meeting them during the follow-up)

Metabolites and enzyme activities	Paired Student’s t-test (p-value)	log₂ (fold change)
Steroids	9.05E-03	−0.38
Saturated fatty acids	1.64E-02	−0.42
Primary fatty amides	4.26E-02	−0.34
N-Acyl ethanolamines	2.39E-02	−0.23
1-Monoacylglycerophosphocholine	2.78E-02	−0.16
Monoacylglycerophosphocholine	4.00E-02	−0.14
Desaturase (MUFA + PUFA/SFA)	7.55E-04	0.39
MAPC/MAPE	8.21E-04	−0.34
LPC/LPE	5.71E-04	−0.31
(NEFA) n-6 /n-3	3.69E-02	−0.27
De novo lipogenesis (16:0/18:2n-6)	1.72E-03	−0.48
Stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (18:1n-9/18:0)	1.79E-02	−0.33
Elongase-6 (18:0/16:0)	3.13E-02	0.70
Delta-6- desaturase (18:3n-6/18:2n-6)	2.39E-03	−0.48
Delta-6- desaturase (18:3/18:2)	7.64E-03	−0.39
Delta-6- desaturase(18:4n-3/18:3n-3)	1.21E-02	2.72
Stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (16:1n-7/16:0)	1.11E-02	0.11
18:1/18:0	2.69E-02	−0.12
PUFA/MUFA	1.50E-02	0.25

log₂ (fold-change) and p-values follows the criterion of heatmap figure
Abbreviations: SFA saturated fatty acids, PUFA polyunsaturated fatty acids, MUFA monounsaturated fatty acids, MAPC Monoacylglycerophosphocholine, MAPE Monoacylglycerophosphoethanolamine, LPC lysophosphatidylcholine, LPE lysophosphatidylethanolamine, NEFA non esterified fatty acids