Differences in Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Gene Expression in the Peripheral Blood and Articular Cartilages of Osteoarthritic Patients and Disease Activity

Table 2

Correlation coefficients (Pearson’s) and their significance (𝑃; Student’s unpaired 𝑡-test) are shown for the expression of mTOR, ULK1, p21,  caspase 3, and TNFα genes in OA patients and healthy subjects in relation to each other and clinical traits.

Set 1 patients	mTOR	ULK1	Caspase  3	TNFα
“Low mTOR” subset; OA patients (𝑛=15)
Caspase 3				0.645; 𝑃=0.009
Pain on walking	−0.568; 𝑃=0.02
Pain on standing	−0.701; 𝑃=0.004
Total physical function			−0.674; 𝑃=0.007
Total WOMAC			−0.633; 𝑃=0.007
BMD L1–L4			0.544; 𝑃=0.03
BMD total femur			0.580; 𝑃=0.02
“High mTOR” subset; OA patients; (𝑛=32)
mTOR		0.369; 𝑃=0.03	0.408; 𝑃=0.02	0.691; 𝑃<0.001
𝑃21	0.360; 𝑃=0.04	0.683; 𝑃<0.001		0.354; 𝑃=0.04
Caspase 3				0.502; 𝑃=0.003
BMI	0.432; 𝑃=0.01
BMD L1–L4		0.454; 𝑃=0.009
BMD femoral neck	0.439; 𝑃=0.01
ESR				0.442; 𝑃=0.01
End-stage OA patients; (𝑛=14)
mTOR				0.549; 𝑃=0.04
ULK1				0.813; 𝑃<0.001
𝑃21		0.770; 𝑃=0.001		0.756; 𝑃=0.02
Healthy subjects
TNFα	−0.560; 𝑃=0.03	0.639; 𝑃=0.01	0.556; 𝑃=0.03

Only significant data are presented. ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate; WOMAC: Western Ontario and McMaster Universities osteoarthritis index; BMD: bone mineral density; BMI: body mass index.