Characterization of hyaluronan-coated extracellular vesicles in synovial fluid of patients with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis

Table 2 Confocal microscopy data of the sampled knee surgery patients (mean ± SE)

	Control (n = 7)	RA (n = 8)	OA (n = 8)	p
Area of EV, μm²/visual field	63.4 ± 14.6	48.8 ± 6.5	56.4 ± 6.5	0.726
Intensity of EV, AU	49.1 ± 5.5^B	29.8 ± 2.0^A	43.4 ± 2.7^B	0.003
Count of EV, N	101 ± 11	82 ± 14	93 ± 10	0.463
Area of HA-particles, μm²/visual field	20.2 ± 4.1	12.9 ± 0.7	18.0 ± 2.1	0.272
Intensity of HA-particles, AU	41.4 ± 5.9^B	25.7 ± 1.7^A	41.7 ± 2.6^B	0.002
Count of HA-particles, N	231 ± 47	212 ± 22	204 ± 18	0.763
Count of co-localized EV and HA-particles, N	46 ± 14	39 ± 5	58 ± 7	0.224
Diameter of co-localized EV and HA-particles, nm	401 ± 36	379 ± 25	324 ± 14	0.110
Co-localization of EV and HA-particles, %	67.0 ± 2.5	66.5 ± 1.6	65.8 ± 1.3	0.854

RA rheumatoid arthritis, OA osteoarthritis, EV extracellular vesicle, AU arbitrary unit, HA hyaluronan; means with dissimilar superscript letters indicate significant differences between the study groups within a row, those with similar superscript letters are not significantly different from each other (Kruskal–Wallis ANOVA)

ISSN: 1471-2474