Fig 2: Circulating adipokine concentrations before initiating ART. (A) Baseline concentrations of adiponectin, omentin, APLNR, and ZAG in controls (n = 120), IRs (n = 77), and INRs (n = 22). p-value indicates significant differences among indicated groups by nonparametric Mann–Whitney test. (B) Heatmap showing the correlation analyses between all adipokines evaluated and clinical characteristics at baseline. Correlation matrix is color-coded according to the Spearman (ρ) correlation coefficient (−1:1, red: blue through white), and correlations with statistically significance are indicated. (C) Network interactions generated with the set of the four differentially expressed biomarkers at baseline (adiponectin, apelin receptor, omentin, and ZAG) identified by the STRING database. The STRING database identified different biological processes associated with our network using the false discovery rate (FDR). Adiponectin = ADIPOQ, apelin receptor = APLNR, omentin = ITLN1 and zinc-alpha-2-glycoprotein = ZAG.