The mediation effect of serum metabolites on the relationship between long-term smoking exposure and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Table 2 The selected potential intermediate metabolites of smoking exposure on ESCC by high-dimensional mediation analyses

Metabolites	α	β	α*β	TE	%TE	FDR
Ever smoking
Carnitine (9:0)	−0.278	−0.552	0.153	1.133	13.53	0.022
Histidine	−0.377	−0.745	0.281	1.133	24.80	0.017
Glutamine	−0.223	−1.349	0.301	1.133	26.58	0.012
Smoking index
PG (14:1/7:0)	2.45E-04	0.549	1.35E-04	1.25E-03	10.78	0.037
Carnitine (9:0)	−2.60E-04	−0.377	9.82E-05	1.25E-03	7.87	0.037
Histidine	−3.45E-04	−1.283	4.43E-04	1.25E-03	35.51	0.008
Glutamine	−2.32E-04	−1.590	3.69E-04	1.25E-03	29.54	0.001
Cholic acid	−4.57E-03	−0.057	2.62E-04	1.25E-03	21.01	0.037

α: represents changes in the former path of the mediation effect, adjusted for age and gender
β: represents changes in the latter path of the mediation effect, adjusted for age and gender
α*β: represents the mediation effect, adjusted for age and gender
TE, total effect
% TE: the proportion of total effect explained by each mediator, calculated as α*β/TE
FDR, false discovery rate

ISSN: 1471-2407