Patent ID: 8883427

Claim:
A method of predicting progression of an osteoarthritic condition in a joint of a subject, said method comprising: providing a support comprising hyaluronan or a fragment thereof coupled to a surface of the support; contacting the support with a synovial fluid sample from an osteoarthritic joint of a subject, wherein the synovial fluid sample comprises inter-α-inhibitor protein (IαI) and TNF-stimulated gene 6 protein (TSG-6); incubating the synovial fluid sample with the support under conditions effective for the TSG-6 in the synovial fluid sample to mediate transfer of heavy chains from the IαI to the hyaluronan or a fragment thereof to form a complex comprising a heavy chain from IαI and hyaluronan or a fragment thereof coupled to the surface of the support; washing the support; detecting, using an antibody, TSG-6 activity in the synovial fluid sample by determining occurrence levels of the complex coupled to the surface of the support, wherein TSG-6 activity of about 13.0 nM or higher compared to a standard of 1 nM recombinant TSG-6 is predictive of the joint progressing to total arthroplasty within a period of about three years.