ArticleMetabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society2026
The Gini coefficient as a surrogate for the regulability or homeostasis of metabolite concentrations: focus on ergothioneine.
Article in Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Gini coefficient is a simple non-parametric statistic that reflects the degree of variation of a property between individuals or samples, taking a value between zero and one. We here develop the idea that if the metabolism of a metabolite is tightly regulated it should have a low Gini coefficient whereas if for instance it is exogenous and present only in a subset of samples (e.g. from individuals that have ingested the substance and/or metabolised it to various degrees) the Gini coefficient will be much greater. Analysis of published datasets shows this to be true, allowing one to suggest that the Gini coefficient might assist in assessing both regulability and the origin of a particular metabolite. Plasma amino acid levels are especially tightly regulated (some have a Gini coefficient less than 0.1, a value lower than that for any transcript), while exogenous drugs and their metabolites have the highest Gini coefficients (some over 0.8). Vitamins are essential and exogenous (but regulated) and have intermediate values (ca. 0.2-0.4). Ergothioneine is a valuable nutraceutical that is not synthesised by humans and it is also of some interest to assess the variation in its distribution. A number of studies find it normally to have a Gini coefficient in the range 0.3-0.4, and with lower levels of the Gini coefficient (as in a pilot study summarised here) suggesting a relatively weak exogenous exposure. Overall, we consider that the Gini coefficient provides a convenient means of describing the extent to which a metabolite concentration varies over a metabolomic dataset, and hence the extent to which it may be regulated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.