*4.7. Statistical Analyses*

All statistical analyses and graphical presentations were performed using GraphPad Prism 8.2.0 (GraphPad Software, San Diego, CA, USA). Statistical differences between groups were calculated using the Mann–Whitney U-test or non-parametric analysis of variance (ANOVA) for paired or unpaired samples followed by post hoc multiple comparison test where applied. Differences were considered significant at least at *p* < 0.05.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10 .3390/ijms22158134/s1.

**Author Contributions:** J.O.-T.: design of the project, sample collection, experiment conduction, data analysis, interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. A.B.: design of the project, experiment conduction, data analysis, interpretation of data, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. A.Z.: design of the project, patients enrolment, sample collection, clinical data acquisition, data analysis, interpretation of data, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. A.S.-I.: design of the project, sample collection, data analysis,

interpretation of data, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. I.J.: design of the project, sample collection, data analysis, interpretation of data, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. F.D.: design of the project, patients enrolment, sample collection, clinical data acquisition, data analysis, interpretation of data, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript and of the project, experiment conduction, data analysis, interpretation of data, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. G.K.-K.: conceptualization, investigation, methodology, writing-review & editing. E.B.: design of the project, patients enrolment, sample collection, clinical data acquisition, data analysis, interpretation of data, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. K.B.: design of the project, experiment conduction, data analysis, interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. J.M.: design of the project, data analysis, interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript, critical revision and final approval of the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** The study was supported by the Polish National Science Centre grant no. 2014/13/B/NZ6/00806 and the 1st Faculty of Medicine, Warsaw Medical University grants 1M15/18 and 1M15/19.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Medical University of Warsaw. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

**Data Availability Statement:** Raw data can be obtained from the corresponding author upon request.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of the interest.
