Hierarchic clustering was performed of patients using plasma levels of cytokines, chemokines and markers of endotoxemia to investigate global distribution along the 5 histological subgroups.

Fig 3A. Hierarchic cluster analysis was performed using iFABP, LBP, LPS and sCD14. Using these markers only a group enriched with cirrhotic patients could be distinguished from the rest. In Fig 3B we used clustering on 5 cytokine/inflammation markers (CCL2, CCL3, TNFα, IL6 and IL8), whereby 3 blocks could be distinguished with some patients misclassified, using the same statistical setting (Euclidian distance, McQuitty’s linkage rule and normalized Z-score, see [22]). Abbreviations: CIR: cirrhosis; OB: obese with no NAFL; NFL: NAFL; NFR: NASH with fibrosis and NSH: NASH.