Fig 1.
The scheme showing the methods in this study.
Hair was cut into 3 cm length pieces from the root, frozen and crushed using a metal cone. After crushing, Milli-Q water was added, the metal cone was removed, and the dispersion liquid was divided into one for mineral measurement and one for free amino acid measurement. Minerals in hair were measured by ICP-MS, and free amino acids were measured by HPLC. The measured values of the healthy controls and subjects with diseased were compared using t tests and effect sizes.
Fig 2.
Box-and-whisker plot showing the content of the components of interest in the head hair samples from the healthy group.
Box-and-whisker plots showing (a) the mineral contents and (b) the free amino acid contents in the head hair samples from the healthy group.
Table 1.
Components with ≥0.5% outliers in the head hair samples from the healthy group.
Fig 3.
A volcano plot created from the measurement values of the healthy group and the disease group.
(a) Volcano plots created from the mineral content in head hair samples of the healthy group and the disease group, and (b) volcano plots created from free amino acid content in head hair samples of the healthy group and the disease group. Red plot represents high expression, and blue plot represents low expression.
Table 2.
Components with statistically significant differences observed between the healthy and patient groups by Student’s t test.
Table 3.
Components considered important on the basis of effect size.
Fig 4.
Statistical analysis methods used in this study and results obtained from these analyses.
The measurement data of minerals and free amino acids contained in the hair of healthy subjects and patient groups with diseases (DM, HT, AGA, MDD, AD, CI) was analyzed using Student’s t test and effect size, and the results obtained from these analyses are shown.