MetaMorph software was used to calculate migration rate by measuring the distance covered by cells between two subsequent time points (4 fields measurements for each image).
Mann-Whitney rank sum tests were used to compare changes in the clinical parameters between baseline and subsequent time points.
Linear mixed effects models were performed to test for group differences over time as well as comparisons between baseline and subsequent time points within each group.
As a substantial number of patients completed their baseline assessment after randomisation, we did not test for differences in QL scores between baseline and subsequent time points.
There were significant differences in arterial haemoglobin concentration between baseline and subsequent time points in the two groups, and there was a difference in haemoglobin concentration between groups at T1 (Table 3).
Also, propionic and butyric acid displayed a differential behavior between T1 and subsequent time points; however, they also were consistently more similar to each other than to any other treatment.
In our study, we have shown that the serum CRP levels of MIA-injected rats do not differ significantly between the baseline and subsequent time points.
Multiple pairwise comparisons between the baseline and subsequent time points by the Wilcoxon test with Bonferroni correction showed only creatinine increased significantly between baseline and day 5 (p = 0.007).
Six gene sets (Additional file 1) showed differential expression between at least two subsequent time points (one-way ANOVA with Newman-Keuls test, Additional file 2), while one gene set (inflammatory components) was excluded since no significant temporal changes were found.
One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Bonferroni's comparison test were used to analyse significance between different sub-cohorts of patients and controls, and between the pre-operative and subsequent time points in the longitudinal follow-up study.
