Fig. 4

Medication-dependent relationship between -108 methylation and lactone-hydrolysing activity. The graph represents the combined association of -108 methylation and medication with lactonase activity in a population of patients with a wide range of (hepato)metabolic derangements. Patients not taking any medication show increased activity levels in case of high methylation. This effect disappears in patients that took medication at the start of the study protocol. Methylation is represented as M-values; positive M-values mean that more molecules are methylated than unmethylated (> 50% methylation) while negative M-values mean the opposite (< 50% methylation). Activity levels towards lactone substrate are expressed as units per millilitre of serum, in which 1 unit equals 1 mmol of 5-thiobutyl butyrolactone hydrolysed/min. Significance was present if p < 0.05