“…In the late-stage OA group, we found differentially expressed proteins of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) such as: MMP1 (log2 fold change 4.31, 95% CI [3.85, 4.76]), collagenase 3 (2.21 [1.76, 2.67]) and stromelysin-1 (1.89, [1.43, 2.35]). These proteins degrade ECM components and are well-studied as OA biomarkers ( 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 ). Furthermore, among the proteins with highest absolute log2 fold change we found upregulation of inhibin beta A chain (3.58, [3.04, 4.11]), tumor necrosis factor-inducible gene 6 protein (2.60, [2.09, 3.12]) and kininogen-1 (2.60, [2.13, 3.07]) as well as downregulation of NAD(P)H dehydrogenase (quinone) 1 (−3.29, [−3.79, −2.79]), hemoglobin subunit alpha (−3.25, [−3.79, −2.71]) and aldehyde dehydrogenase, mitochondrial (−2.87, [−3.37, −2.37]) ( Supplemental Data S2 ).…”