Sphere-forming corneal cells repopulate dystrophic keratoconic stroma: Implications for potential therapy

Table 3 Statistical analysis of difference in gene expression in sphere-seeded tissue sections as measured by droplet digital polymerase chain reaction, effect of matrix, keratoconic vs normal

	Keratoconic	Normal	Keratoconic- normal
Target	Estimate1 (lower.95, upper.95)	Estimate1 (lower.95, upper.95)	P
ABCB5	0 (0, 0.01)	0.01 (0, 0.03)	0.351	NS
ABCG2	0.03 (0.01, 0.09)	0.37 (0.14, 0.99)	0.001	S
aSMA	0.24 (0.09, 0.64)	0.20 (0.07, 0.54)	0.800	NS
Col1A1	6.40 (2.37, 17.25)	3.62 (1.34, 9.77)	0.418	NS
Col1A2	9.30 (3.45, 25.08)	4.74 (1.76, 12.79)	0.337	NS
dNp63	0 (0, 0.01)	0.02 (0.01, 0.05)	0.004	S
ITGa3	0.16 (0.06, 0.43)	0.21 (0.08, 0.56)	0.695	NS
ITGb1	7.63 (2.83, 20.57)	6.09 (2.26, 16.42)	0.748	NS
Keratocan	0.03 (0.01, 0.08)	0.04 (0.02, 0.12)	0.588	NS
KRT3	0.01 (0.01, 0.04)	0.04 (0.01, 0.12)	0.211	NS
LAMA1	0.17 (0.06, 0.46)	0.13 (0.05, 0.36)	0.726	NS
Notch1	0.07 (0.03, 0.20)	0.58 (0.21, 1.56)	0.003	S
P63a	0.01 (0, 0.01)	0.02 (0.01, 0.06)	0.053	NS
PCNA	0.51 (0.19, 1.38)	0.73 (0.27, 1.97)	0.612	NS
Vimentin	24.29 (9.01, 65.52)	29.45 (10.92, 79.43)	0.784	NS
ABCB5	0 (0, 0.01)	0.01 (0, 0.03)	0.351	NS

¹Values are the back-transformed estimates from the multivariate regression; NS: Not significant; S: Significant (P ≤ 0.05); ABCB5: ATP binding cassette subfamily B member 5; ABCG2: ATP-binding cassette, sub-family G member 2; αSMA: Smooth muscle, actin; COL1A1: Collagen type I, alpha 1 chain; COL1A2: Collagen type I, alpha 2 chain; TP63: Tumour protein p63; ∆NP63: Transcript variant 1, ∆NP63: N-terminal isoform, ITGa3: Integrin, subunit alpha 3; ITGB1: Integrin, subunit beta 1; KRT3: Keratin 3; LAMA1: Laminin, subunit alpha 1; TP63: Tumour protein p63; PCNA: Proliferating cell nuclear antigen.