Differences in Metabolic Profiles of CTL and VVC
In order to identify the differences in the metabolic profile of the CTL and VVC groups, the vaginal metabolites were analyzed in healthy individuals and VVC patients. The established PCA model revealed clusters in the VVC group that were significantly alienated from the CTL group on both PC1 and PC2 in positive and negative modes (Fig. 2A). A supervised PLS-DA model was obtained with two principal predictive components, which indicated a clear dispersion between the two groups (Fig. 2B). Furthermore, a permutation test of the PLS-DA model was implemented. The R2 and Q2 intercept values were (0.0, 0.639) and (0.0, -0.751) in positive mode between CTL and VVC groups, while the R2 and Q2 intercept values were (0.0, 0.758) and (0.0, -0.554) in negative mode (Fig. 2C). The above results suggested that the metabolism of the CTL group was significantly different from that of the VVC group.