Table 2.

Correlation between spheroid characteristics and tissue regeneration capacity

Spheroid characteristics	Correlation with level of tissue regeneration and statistical significance
ACAN protein	r = 0.55; p < 0.025
ACAN mRNA	r = 0.53; p < 0.05a
GAG spheroids	ns
GAG medium	ns
GAG ratio	r = 0.41; p = 0.073
S100BmRNA	ns
CRTAC1 mRNA	ns

Spearman’s correlation coefficient r was calculated between spheroid characteristics analysed before implantation and the capacity of tissue regeneration after 12 weeks of co-cultivation in an ex vivo cartilage repair model

ns not significant

^aACAN mRNA levels do correlate with tissue regeneration when one statistical outlier (#12) with extremely high ACAN mRNA levels is taken out of the analysis