Fig 1.
Serum progesterone concentrations, shown as box-and-whisker blots (upper panel) and as individual concentrations (intermediate panel), and basal body temperature (lower panel) at early (T1) and late (T2) follicular and mid (T3) and late (T4) luteal phase across a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Results were obtained by repeated measures ANOVA (basal body temperature) and repeated measures ANOVA on ranks (serum progesterone) and all pairwise multiple comparison procedures (Holm-Sidak and Tukey test, respectively); same superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.01) between time points.
Fig 2.
Plasma concentrations of arginine, ornithine and citrulline shown as box-and-whisker blots at early (T1) and late (T2) follicular and mid (T3) and late (T4) luteal phase across a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Results were obtained by repeated measures ANOVA and Holm-Sidak all pairwise multiple comparison procedures; same superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.01) between time points.
Table 1.
Changes of variables across the menstrual cycle.
Results are presented as mean ± SD of 28 women at 4 time points (T1-T4).
Table 2.
Comparison of plasma arginine concentrations (μmol/L) of women across the menstrual cycle with reference ranges of 292 healthy men.
Fig 3.
Linear regressions of plasma concentrations of arginine, ornithine and citrulline on serum progesterone concentrations at mid luteal phase (T3) of a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Abbreviations: Arg, arginine; Cit, citrulline; Orn, ornithine; Prog, progesterone.
Table 3.
Regressions of amino acids (dependent variables) on progesterone (independent variables) at the 4 time points and regressions of changes (Δ) thereof between time points on Δ progesterone.
Regression coefficients are presented for 28 women.
Fig 4.
Linear regressions of changes in plasma concentrations of arginine, ornithine and citrulline on changes in serum progesterone concentrations between late follicular and mid luteal phase (ΔT3-T2) (panels on the left hand side) and between mid-luteal and late luteal (ΔT4-T3) phase (panels on the right hand side) of a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Abbreviations: Arg, arginine; Cit, citrulline; Orn, ornithine; Prog, progesterone.
Table 4.
Spearman rank correlations between arginine, ornithine and citrulline, at the 4 time points (T1-T4) as well as of changes (Δ) between time points.
Correlation coefficients are presented for 28 women.
Fig 5.
Linear regressions of activation of the NF-κB p65 subunit in PBMC on plasma arginine concentrations at late follicular phase (T2) of a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Abbreviations: Arg, arginine, NF-κB, nuclear factor kappa B.
Fig 6.
Plasma putrescine, spermidine, spermine and N-acetyl-putrescine shown as individual concentrations across a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Fig 7.
Ratios of ornithine to putrescine, spermidine, spermine and N-acetyl-putrescine shown as box-and-whisker blots at early (T1) and late (T2) follicular and mid (T3) and late (T4) luteal phase across a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Results were obtained by repeated measures ANOVA and repeated measures ANOVA on ranks for normally and non-normally distributed data, respectively, along with all pairwise multiple comparison procedures (Holm-Sidak and Tukey tests, respectively); same superscripts indicate significant differences (P < 0.01) between time points.
Fig 8.
Linear regressions of plasma ratios of ornithine to putrescine, spermidine, spermine and N-acetyl-putrescine on serum progesterone concentrations at mid luteal phase (T3) of a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Abbreviations: A-Putr, acetyl-putrescine; Orn, ornithine; Prog, progesterone; Put, putrescine; Spd, spermidine; Spm, spermine.
Table 5.
Regressions of polyamines (dependent variables) on progesterone (independent variable) at the 4 time points and regressions of changes (Δ) thereof between time points on Δ progesterone.
Regression coefficients are presented for 28 women.
Fig 9.
Spearman rank correlations between changes in plasma concentrations of putrescine and spermidine, putrescine and spermine as well as spermidine and spermine between mid and late luteal phase (ΔT4-T3) of a given menstrual cycle in 28 women.
Table 6.
Spearman rank correlations between ornithine and polyamines and among polyamines at the 4 time points (T1-T4) as well as of changes (Δ) between time points.
Correlation coefficients are presented for 28 women.