Figure 4

Serum metabolite associations with testosterone levels in PCOS cases and controls with large waist circumference (WC⩾98). Overall there are 30 metabolites significantly associated with testosterone in PCOS but not in control women with large waist circumference (only 6 of these plotted here, see Supplementary Tables 8–10 for full data set), suggesting that androgens levels correlate with adverse metabolic profiles of VLDL and lipid fractions in abdominally obese but not in otherwise lean PCOS women. No associations found in lean or intermediate obese women. The points and horizontal lines indicate the regression coefficient slopes (β) for testosterone with their 95% confidence intervals in cases and controls. Betas presented in standard deviation (s.d.) units and the beta difference was calculated as β(cases)−β(controls) and presented in s.d. units. Significant and suggestive differences, after correction for multiple testing, indicated with specific characters. Serum metabolites levels that are positively associated with testosterone are in red and those that are negatively associated in blue. Omega 3 FA ratio, omega 6,7 FA ratio and omega-9 FA ratio denote the omega metabolite ratio to total fatty acids. Apo denotes apolipoprotein; FA, fatty acid; HDL, high density lipoprotein; IDL, intermediate density lipoprotein; LDL, low density lipoprotein; TG, triglycerides; VLDL, very low density lipoprotein.