Fig. 1

Flow chart of the study. Bulk RNA-seq dataset GSE89408 was downloaded to identify differentially expressed m6A regulators and build LASSO-Cox regression model to screen core m6A regulators in OA synovium. Next, potential targets of these regulators were collected from RM2target database to construct a molecular network indicating their interaction. Afterwards, we used scRNA-seq dataset GSE152805 to identify the localization of core m6A regulators along with their targeting genes. A large merged dataset composed of 5 GEO datasets (GSE55235, GSE55457, GSE82157, GSE55584, and GSE89408) was then used for cell type deconvolution, ssGSEA scoring of m6A regulator targeting genes, and correlation analysis between cell proportion and ssGSEA scores. Above results validated a strong correlation between IGF2BP3 and OA synovial macrophages. Additionally, clustering of samples in merged dataset was performed based on IGF2BP3 targeting genes to speculate differentially enriched pathways between sample clusters. Finally, IGF2BP3 expression was detected in clinical samples, and its functions were explored in BMDMs